Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
WWMN Interview: Teddy Nykiel from the Milwaukee Business Journal Talks Harley Layoffs, Bucc-ee's Truck Stop, and More!
Thanks Dayton and we're here with Teddy Nykel from the Milwaukee Business Journal on our Tri-County Contracting Hotline and Teddy tell us about these layoffs that Harley announced this week. So there actually wasn't an official announcement but we were able to kind of find out through a source that there have been organizational adjustments is what the company confirmed but we understand it's impacting around 150 employees. We don't know whether it's production or more corporate employees and we don't know exactly where they are so unfortunately we don't have a ton of details to share but the spokesperson did confirm that they have they're saying they're implementing select organizational adjustments to drive cost productivity so that's kind of what we have to share right now. The company has more than 2,000 employees locally and more than 6,000 company-wide so on the whole it's a small you know relatively small number of their employees or percentage I should say but still 150 you know is not nothing. Well if you're one of the 150 it's a big deal right yeah well Harley Davidson is doing a lot repurposing its headquarters and they unveiled a new public park this week as well. Yeah so the company has switched to hybrid and slash remote workforce so they've really begun repurposing their historic headquarters in Milwaukee. The CEO is in town this week and he said they are committed to still keeping their headquarters there but they are repurposing it so the first space of that was creating this park on the former employee parking lot. It's a really stunning design with a circular amphitheater it is open to the public which is cool but that's just the first redevelopment that they're kind of working on. He announced this week as well their next plans are to create a headquarters for its factory racing team inside that historic headquarters building that is there and they're also going to be bringing in team education program to the Harley Davidson University buildings just near there as well so a lot of plans to kind of repurpose this building that's not really being used as much now that more people are working remotely. A lot of people out there taking rides on their motorcycles or their cars and they want to go to a really nice travel center and there's somebody special day. What is this buckies thing? I've not heard of it before but I know a lot of people are really obsessed with them. Yeah it's weirdly wildly popular so it's a Texas based chain of travel centers that they're Texas size so they have this one planned for Wisconsin which would be the first would have a hundred and twenty gas pumps 75 thousand square foot store so it's more like a Walmart store and it has a huge following in the towel. Did you say a hundred and twenty gas pumps? Yes yes we are talking a huge travel center and yeah it really has a following in the south and in Texas and this would be the first store in Wisconsin. They announced it last year and it's just gotten so much excitement from people in Wisconsin who are excited to see what all the hype is about and I should just add it's not in the Milwaukee area it's in Dane County it'd be just north of Madison and DeForest but that's the thing about this wildly popular travel center is people travel you know people would be expected to travel from Milwaukee just to visit this gas station so it's gaining a lot of attention across the state but the news this week is that it is delayed they were originally gonna start construction on it this year but they are meaning to do some work to expand the highway to accommodate the increased traffic that they're expecting from this it's really like almost a tourist destination and so because of kind of some complications with the highway improvements and figuring out how to pay for it is now delayed we don't know exactly how long it's delayed but they're saying it's likely not gonna be starting construction this year. Well I know a lot of rest stops have sort of that signature food do you know what Bucky's is? I do I'm blanking on the name for it now but they do have a signature like a popcorn type of thing Bucky I don't want to miss but something like that that we I'm sure can share as it gets closer to actually opening. No I can't wait to taste it all right let's look at the 100 East they want to have the downtown building listed on the National Register of Historic Places how's this gonna help because they're converting to apartments and yeah historical significance of that address yeah so a really interesting story about this building so the building was built in 1989 so 35 years ago so you might wonder you know how is that historic and that's the question that they'll have to prove to the state and national and local boards you know making this examination but the reason why the developers want this is because it could help them secure tax credits to pay for the conversion to apartments so if the building is considered historic they would be eligible for historic tax credits and that could really help in terms of raising capital to pay for it and it's hard to raise capital right now with interest rates and everything so this could be one strategy so it's unique in that most historic buildings have to be 50 years or older this one's only 35 years old there are examples of exceptions and so this one they're hoping could be an exception the historical significance is it's on the site of what was Milwaukee's first skyscraper so it was built in the 1800s called the Pabs Building and that was known as the Milwaukee's first skyscraper it was torn down and then 100 East was built it was kind of built to have a similar architectural style to that building and it's also kind of considered an example of post-modern architecture in downtown Milwaukee so there's a lot of history in this you know relatively new building that was built in the 80s well the one thing we know is George Washington never slept there let's have him film walkie charter schools they've got a new location on the city south side yes Carmen schools is planning a new 55 million dollar campus on Milwaukee's south side it's a charter school Carmen schools of science and technology they have five campuses and they proposed a new one on West Oklahoma Avenue it's still kind of in the city approval process so they were just with the board of zoning appeals this week but if approved it would be on the six acre parcel they would purchase from wheat and friends to skin and this would be the first school that Carmen schools is actually building from the ground up so that could be exciting if it is indeed approved well you were just a couple weeks away we've been counting down it seems like forever for the RNC and they've announced who's going to be headlining the big RNC welcome party and who is that Teddy this is country music star Trace Atkins so this will be a welcome party for guests on July 14th now just a couple weeks away it's really coming up fast the event is called red white and brew and it will be for convention delegates and partner organizations and global media so I guess that means us local media might not be invited but it will feature in addition to trace Atkins performance there will be Wisconsin food and drinks welcoming all those visitors to Milwaukee Chrissy interesting thing about trace Atkins not only is he a phenomenal country singer but he also won the apprentice really I did not know that now well there's another but there's another link to what the presumed nominee Donald Trump all right there you go Teddy Nykel from the Milwaukee Business Journal thanks for joining us today thanks Libby and back