In Business

If you want to ruin a dinner party, just bring up Monsanto. Like politics and religion before it, the world’s largest seed company is a topic notorious for starting arguments.

To critics of Monsanto and the genetically modified (GMO) crops it develops, the company is a money-grubbing force for evil, poisoning the food supply and stomping on small farmers and environmentalists who get in its way.

To defenders, Monsanto is well on the way to wiping out world hunger, working to usher in an age in which, for the first time in mankind’s 200,000-year history, everyone has enough to eat. (The company’s chief technology officer, Robert Fraley, won the coveted World Food Prize last year.) 

Those two camps are firmly entrenched, thanks in large part to the Internet’s bunker system. Those who believe the ethical and practical questions raised by GMOs are a bit more nuanced have been largely silent on issue, at least online.

You might say beer is in Brian Destree’s blood. Not literally – he’s sober and bright-eyed on a busy Wednesday morning – but in a deep, ancestral way.

His family emigrated from Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, the birthplace of the ubiquitous “pilsner” style of beer, in 1863. As if that weren’t a strong enough link, they ended up in northern Wisconsin, in a town with the same name.

That heritage gave him two things: the ability to swear in Bohemian, and inspiration to take up a career in brewing.

At 36 years of age, Destree is director of operations at Capital Brewery, making him the face of a beer producer that is synonymous with the Good Neighbor City. Destree, who took over for longtime brewmaster Kirby Nelson when Nelson departed to found Wisconsin Brewing Company in Verona, brought with him a new outlook on brewing and a new slate of recipes. But he also has respect for those who laid the foundation before him.

Terrence Wall has a well-known reputation as a fierce competitor and an ambitious capitalist. But sitting in his modest office in downtown Middleton, speaking with earnest enthusiasm in a soft-spoken voice, there is a hint of dreamy, boyish sentiment in the way he talks about Bishops Bay, the uber-development that is once again under his control.

Surrounded by a noticeably youthful staff, the veteran developer pauses for a moment when asked if it is gratifying to have his hands back in the sprawling, multi-use project’s nuts and bolts.

“Yes,” he acknowledges, but not for the reason one might suspect.

“It’s not about wanting to be in charge,” Wall states. “It’s about once again having the ability to execute on the vision and quality of the development. It’s about re-establishing credibility with builders and realtors.”

Both his critics and his supporters agree, Wall simply doesn’t do small.

Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPB) announced Tuesday its world headquarters, several North American divisional operations and its technology center, in all totaling more than 500 full-time employees, have moved into a newly built and more economical and energy-efficient facility in the Discovery Springs area of Middleton. In January 2012 the company announced plans to move to the new facility before the end of 2013.

The company, which considered moving its world headquarters (relocated from Atlanta in 2010) and North American Remington(R) personal care operations to Miramar, Florida, where its Russell Hobbs home appliances subsidiary acquired in June 2010 already occupied a suitably sized building, decided to stay in the greater Madison area due to major space efficiencies and other cost savings, as well as Tax Increment Financing from the City of Middleton. The new building can accommodate as many as 675 full-time employees.

As citizens and politicians in Middleton debate a controversial Erdman Holdings development on the other side of the community, local developer and former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Terrence Wall last week announced that he has regained control of the Bishops Bay development to the city’s north.

Wall is the man who first pitched the massive uber-development to the Middleton City Council, but he was later deposed when the T. Wall Properties Board of Directors voted to remove him from his position as president and CEO.

Last week’s announcement was somewhat convoluted, however, as Wall’s office made the news public in a press release sent to news outlets but later attempted to retract the statement.

Goodman's Jewelers is celebrating an important milestone this weekend: its 80th anniversary.   

Founded in 1933, the shop is the legacy of two brothers: Robert and Irwin Goodman.

After its founding in the middle of the Great Depression, Goodman’s grew to be a thriving and vital part of the Madison business community, renowned not just for providing excellent jewelry, but also for making generous and important donations of funding support to many community staples. 

The Goodman brothers stood apart in the community as two of the most socially proactive entrepreneurs around, having made substantial contributions in multiple parts of Dane County life.  A list of all the contributions Goodman's has made to the community would take pages, but a few highly visible organizations are the Goodman Community Center and the Robert and Irwin Goodman South Branch Library, both of which bear the family name to this day.

On Thursday, Aug. 22 and Friday, Aug. 23, more than 600 kids from around the West Madison and Middleton areas received a gift from Middleton Outreach Ministry and the community that will give them a boost of confidence on their upcoming first day of school.  In its 14th year, the School Supply program provided 630 school-aged children and teens with items that they will need to be successful in the upcoming year.

“Each child received a backpack filled with supplies that is customized for the grade that they will be entering,” said Judy Kujoth, Case Manager for Middleton Outreach Ministry.  “Our goal is to provide more than the basics so that they are truly prepared.  The program also supplies relief to families worried about the extra expense of the often costly supplies.”

It’s often said that a good compromise sends both sides home a little unhappy. If that’s the case, a recent decision by the Middleton Board of Review was a good compromise.

The board lowered the assessment for a local lumber yard in the latest development in a saga that will cost both the city and the business far more in legal fees than they could hope to recoup through the difference in taxes.

The board voted 4-1 to set the value of the land at $869,700, in agreement with city assessor Paul Musser. However, the board decided to only value improvements on the property at $100,000, a figure $200,000 lower than the one set by Musser.

Arguing on behalf of the city, attorney Matt Fleming contended Hall Lumber had failed to provide enough hard evidence to convince the board of review to overcome a legally required assumption that the assessor’s findings are correct.

Plans to expand Capital Brewery in Middleton appear to have fallen by the wayside as multiple media outlets early this week reported that the business plans to build an $11 million, 50,000 square foot production facility in Sauk City.