Man, oh Manchester!

"Few dispute that the Manchester Place building on the Capitol Square is an improvement over the vacated department store it replaced," Eric Parker observes in his cover story on the 10-story office building completed in 1987. Consensus is more elusive regarding the use of low-interest municipal bonds and a federal antipoverty grant to help fund its construction. "Only a third of Manchester Place's 245 jobs have been created," he reports, "its modest retail space is only partially filled, and no major new developments have spun off as anticipated." Parker also reports that Manchester Place has helped to exacerbate a softening downtown office market, leading other downtown stakeholders to appeal for lower assessments on their office properties. Mayor Joe Sensenbrenner's rivals in the mayoral primary are using the project as ammunition. "The city puts low-interest loans into the hands of people who are already rich to begin with," argues Eugene Parks. Adds former Mayor Paul Soglin: "It raises very serious questions about how we evaluate our projects." Soglin goes on to oust Sensenbrenner in that spring's mayoral election. Parker becomes executive director of the nonprofit Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership; he dies suddenly in August 2007, at age 45, while vacationing in North Carolina.