Milwaukee Office Tower Design Unveiled.

In September, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. unveiled plans for its US$450-million, 32-story office tower in downtown Milwaukee near Lake Michigan, The Wall Street Journal reports. Boasting a curved-glass fa-çade, the 550-ft.-tall tower will have loft-style, open inte-riors designed to encourage interaction. According to Northwestern Mutual, its new 1.1-million-sq.-ft. head-quarters will create 1,000 new construction jobs through 2017, bring 1,900 jobs to Milwaukee and retain 1,100 jobs in the city center.

snapCaB CeLeBrates 30 Years

SnapCab, a custom elevator-interior manufacturer based in Warrington, Pennsylvania, marks 30 years in business in 2013. CEO Glenn Bostock founded the com-pany in 1983 as a builder of fine furniture and cabinets. He shifted his focus to elevator interiors in 1989, going on to develop an elevator-interior system that shortened instal-lation time from four days to less than one. SnapCab’s business steadily grew, eventually necessitating a move from a barn to a commercial garage to its current modern manufacturing facility, where one cab is produced every 2 hr. using Lean manufacturing techniques. SnapCab reports it has installed more than 10,000 elevator interiors through-out North America.

Wurth tapped as 2014 EESF Campaign Chairman      

The Elevator Escalator Safety Founda-tion (EESF) has announced longtime EESF supporter and Wurtec Inc. Presi-dent Steve Wurth as its 2014 Fund-raising Campaign chairman. Wurth will lead the effort to gather tax-de-ductible donations to further EESF’s mission of educating the public on the safe and proper use of elevators, es-

calators and moving walks. “I believe in the educational mission of EESF and I am confident that the success of EESF in accomplishing this goal will result in cascading benefits throughout the industry,” Wurth stated.

In addition to establishing elevator-products supplier Wurtec in 1985, Wurth cofounded and serves as a manag-ing member of Top Floor Elevator Store, a Canadian ele-vator-products distributor. Wurtec expanded its offerings in 2012 with the purchase of a residential elevator manu-facturer, which became Elevator Concepts Ltd. by Wurtec. Wurth is cofounder and vice president of sheet-metal stamping company Standard Wireway and Supply, presi-dent of steel-supply company P&A Metal Services and president and owner of machining business Wurtec Man-ufacturing. He belongs to numerous boards and associa-tions, both inside and outside the industry.

For more information about supporting EESF, visit www.EESF.org or call (800) 949-6442.

Baltimore Waterfront Project Moves Forward

In September, the Baltimore City Council approved more than US$100 million in public financing for the controver-sial waterfront project Harbor Point, and its developer had hoped to break ground in October on the 23-story, mixed-use Exelon building, The Baltimore Sun reported. Planned on the site of an old chemical plant – which has given rise to environmental concerns – the project would cover 27 acres and include 3 million sq. ft. of office, hotel, retail and residential space. Energy company Exelon Corp. would be the key tenant in its mixed-use namesake building.

Robinson Joins Draka Sales Team

In September, Draka Elevator hired Kevin Robinson as Sales manager/Central Region. Reporting to Director of Sales/Americas Eric Lazear, Robin-son will be based in Fishers, Indiana. His duties are customer-relationship management, sales and business development in Draka’s Midwest/Central territory. Robinson’s experience includes positions at Monitor Elevator Products, General Elevator and ThyssenKrupp Elevator.

Inclinator “University” Part Of Latin American Strategy

In October, Inclinator Co. of America, Inc. hosted its inaugural Spanish-language training program at its Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, headquarters. Part of the com-pany’s global expansion strategy, the weeklong event was designed to educate potential elevator customers from Central and South America and the eastern Caribbean. Translators were on hand during the sessions, which provided information on Inclin-ator’s products such as Elevette® resi-dential elevators, vertical platform lifts and residential and commercial dumbwaiters.

Mark Crispen, Inclinator’s direc-tor of Marketing and International Sales, said there are “huge opportu-nities for our products in the Latin American market.” So far, Inclina-tor has signed an independent sales agreement with a Bogota, Colombia, company and added distributors in Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Co-lombia, Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, Gua-temala, Barbados, Jamaica and Saint Lucia.

Kings Iii Hires Houston Manager

Kings III, an e m e r g e n c y -communications provider based  in Coppell, Texas, has hired Tonya Ahmann-Yates as Business Development manager over the Hous-ton area. Ahmann-Yates has more than 25 years’ experience in sales and service, primarily in the multi-family housing industry. A native of Houston who attended Abilene Christian University, Ahmann-Yates won top sales associate and was rec-ognized for her relationship-building skills during her time at ABC Apart-ment Solutions. Continued