By Brian E. Clark
RISING
“Famous Dave” Anderson
Entrepreneur Dave Anderson, the 54-year-old founder of Famous Dave’s
barbecue restaurant chain, and Grand Casinos, a casino management
company, have jumped into the waterpark business with the opening of
the Keylime Resort in Gurnee, Ill., a northern Chicago suburb that is
also home to a big amusement park.
Anderson, who started his restaurant business in 1994 in northern
Wisconsin’s Hayward, now has 157 eateries in 35 states. He also helped
launch the Rain Forest Café chain, which now has 27 outlets. He’s also
a member of the Chippewa and Choctaw tribes and served from 2004 to
2005 as assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of
the Interior.
Anderson said he chose Gurnee for the 414-room, $135 million resort
because it is near the Great America amusement park and Gurnee Mills
Mall. But most important, he believes, it’s in the heart of northeast
Illinois’ huge megalopolis, busy freeways and should be able to attract
vacationers who want to go to a waterpark but not travel all the way to
the Wisconsin Dells.
MIXED
Badger State economy
As economic growth weakens, Wisconsin personal income growth will slow
to 3.8 percent this year and 4 percent next year, down from gains of
near 5.3 percent in 2006 and about the same amount in 2007, according
to the Wisconsin Quarterly Economic Outlook.
The report, issued by the state Department of Revenue, predicted
Wisconsin’s economy will continue to outperform many of its Midwestern
neighbors and pick up after 2009. At that point, personal income growth
should expand by 4.8 percent in 2010 and 5.3 percent in 2011.
Also during the next two years, employment is expected to remain
relatively flat, increasing by just 0.5 percent this year and 0.6
percent in 2009 for a net gain of 15,000 jobs, the report said. As the
economy recovers nearing 2010, Badger State employment growth should
rise above 1 percent.
FALLING
Wisconsin bank profits
Nearly two dozen Badger State banks failed to make a profit in 2007,
according to a report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The study
said 16 state banks didn’t make a profit in 2006, up from a mere six in
2005.
Kurt Bauer, chief executive of the Wisconsin Bankers Association, said
the ailing housing market is pulling down other parts of the economy.
The biggest loss last year — $20.6 million — was posted by the Brown
Deer-based parent company of Guaranty Bank. In addition to seeing its
mortgage business shrink, the bank also had high start-up costs for 25
new branches. In a year-end report, bank officials described 2007 as
“perhaps our most challenging year ever.”
The report said net income at commercial banks in Wisconsin — those
focused on business lending – dropped more than 10 percent last year to
roughly $1.2 billion. Savings banks, which primarily are mortgage
lenders, saw net income decline by more than 22 percent to $98 million,
the FDIC reported.
