Andrew Weiland
Andrew Weiland is the editor of BizTimes Milwaukee whose work is marked by long-running, scoop-driven coverage of commercial real estate and development in southeastern Wisconsin, paired with clear-eyed analysis of how projects affect the regional business landscape. His reporting on office properties, including detailed pieces on events such as the sheriff’s sale of two Brookfield office buildings, shows a transactional focus that stays close to individual assets and their owners. He joined BizTimes in 2003 and moved from real estate reporter and managing editor into his current editorial role in 2015, continuing to stay active on the real estate beat while steering broader business coverage.
Commercial real estate deals and market shifts
Weiland’s most distinctive strand of work is his ongoing coverage of commercial real estate deals, market conditions and investment trends across office, industrial, retail and hospitality properties. He is especially known inside the market for extensive coverage of southeastern Wisconsin’s commercial real estate industry, where he has developed a deep source network and regularly breaks news through his Real Estate Weekly e-newsletter. That newsletter is a vehicle for early reporting on sales, foreclosures and new development proposals, giving readers transaction details and context before they surface in broader business coverage.
In print and online, he repeatedly returns to the health of the Milwaukee office market, with stories that look at vacancy, leasing and investor interest, such as his earlier reporting on how the office market “has a pulse.”
Coverage of major office transactions and distress events, including sheriff’s sales, keeps the focus on ownership changes, financing pressure and how specific properties fit into shifting demand for office space. His treatment of real estate stories often extends into related sectors, as seen in award-winning work on projects like a planned high-end golf course development, where he reported on the developer’s plans and partnership with a PGA Tour professional.
Across these pieces, the through-line is practical: who is buying, who is selling, what is being built, and what those moves mean for the surrounding business community.
Development battles, data centers and community impact
Beyond straight deal reporting, Weiland spends significant time on contested development projects and the politics around where and how new facilities get built. His magazine commentary has taken up issues such as Milwaukee city government’s handling of development proposals and community opposition to housing developments, connecting project-level disputes to broader questions about regulation, land use and neighborhood change.
He has also written about air pollution regulations and their impact on businesses, signaling a willingness to engage directly with the policy framework that sits around development and industry.
That focus on contentious projects carries into his on-air segments, where he discusses topics such as a controversial Cudahy Farms development, Milwaukee’s housing market and a proposed downtown dog park alongside other business headlines. In recent years he has become a key voice on the surge of data center activity in Wisconsin, participating in a two-part conversation that explains what is actually happening on the ground amid national attention to the issue. Television segments on data center approvals and a potential supply deal in which Generac could provide generators to Amazon further underline his interest in the infrastructure side of development - how large, power-hungry projects intersect with local utilities, manufacturing and community concerns. These strands show him treating real estate not just as property, but as the physical setting for debates over jobs, tax base, neighborhood character and growth.
On-air and weekly business news analysis
Alongside his editing and reporting, Weiland has a regular broadcast presence that broadens his beat beyond real estate into regional business news analysis. He joins the 4 p.m. newscast on WISN-TV Channel 12 each week to talk through the most significant business stories in southeastern Wisconsin, adding live context around developments that BizTimes Milwaukee is covering. Those segments range from health care and insurance stories, such as UnitedHealthcare’s contract negotiations with Ascension, to corporate, education and wealth pieces, including items on UW enrollment and the region’s wealthiest individuals.
His on-air discussions also track major moves in manufacturing, retail and hospitality: Generac’s new plant, Milwaukee Tool’s expansion in Menomonee Falls, Pick ’n Save store closings and other grocery openings, and changes at downtown hotels like the Iron Horse and the Hilton. In the Weekly Debrief video series, he and a colleague walk through news such as the closing of a Master Lock plant, the opening of The Trade hotel and evolving plans for the Deer District, as well as visions for a vacant Wisconsin Avenue site.
Across these appearances, Weiland’s role is to synthesize disparate stories - corporate decisions, development news, consumer trends - into a coherent picture of the regional business climate, often tying them back to how space is used and how the built environment is changing.
Commentary and recognition in business journalism
Within BizTimes Milwaukee’s magazine, Weiland writes an ongoing column that blends commentary with reporting, addressing topics such as the impact of the Republican National Convention on Milwaukee, the financial problems at Milwaukee Public Schools, and the importance of talent development for the region’s future.
These pieces sit at the intersection of business, policy and community, using specific events to examine long-term competitiveness, workforce issues and governance. His work has received sustained recognition, including multiple honors in the Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers awards contests, both for commentary and for business reporting. Under his editorship, BizTimes Milwaukee has accumulated dozens of AABP awards for design and journalism, reinforcing that his influence extends from his own bylines to the overall caliber of the publication’s business coverage.
4 more real estate journalists.
Aaron Elstein
Aaron Elstein brings a Wall Street reporter’s eye to commercial real estate. He is a senior reporter at Crain’s New York Business, where he covers large office towers, Midtown corridors, landlords, lenders, investors and regulators. His reporting shows how ownership decisions, bank balance sheets, capital markets and regulation shape property values and risk. He also covers banking, finance and Wall Street, including bank mergers and investment firms. Before joining Crain’s in 2003, he wrote Heard on the Street columns for The Wall Street Journal and covered bank mergers for American Banker. Elstein reports by closely reading footnotes, contracts, regulatory filings and legal documents. His investigative work has examined executive payments, pension funds, tax enforcement and tenant harassment. His coverage places deals, disputes and enforcement actions within broader financial and property cycles.
Aaron Moselle
Aaron Moselle covers housing and community development for WHYY’s PlanPhilly, filing for radio and the web. He stands out for connecting market data and government action to displacement, affordable homes, and the daily questions facing renters and homeowners. His core beat is housing affordability and market strain, including high mortgage rates, rising prices, tax assessments, and what they mean for buyers, sellers, and renters. He also reports on preserving and creating affordable housing, neighborhood rehab efforts, major real estate deals, and the effect of property sales on residents. His work often uses direct sourcing, plain language, and service journalism to make policy and finance clear.
Aarthi Swaminathan
Aarthi Swaminathan is a personal finance reporter at MarketWatch whose distinctive beat connects residential real estate with household budgets. She covers housing prices, affordability, mortgage rates, financing, insurance, remodeling and the costs of owning a home. Her reporting examines overvalued and fast-rising markets, ZIP-code trends, second-home sellers, builders, developers and buyers facing higher borrowing costs. She also follows Gen Z buyers, owners trapped in weakening condo markets and neighborhood conflicts over development. Her work pairs data-driven housing analysis with detailed case studies of buyers, owners and sellers. She explains complex market data in clear, accessible language and writes news features, personal-finance explainers, Economic Report stories, The Big Move and New American Playbook. She won a silver award for Best Collection of Work by an Individual Covering Residential Real Estate.
Abbey Ferguson
Abbey Ferguson stands out for reporting how major commercial moves and redevelopment plans reshape the built environment, especially the real estate deals that reveal what land and retail space are worth. She covers Central Texas commercial real estate and development for KWTX, with recent stories on land valuation, major transactions, retail redevelopment, and infrastructure planning. Her work has tracked an $80 million data center site offer in Hill County, a prospective Trader Joe’s location in Waco, and a planning project using artificial intelligence to predict traffic patterns. She writes as a news reporter, staying close to the numbers, public records, brokers, officials, and landowners. Her stories turn contract prices, appraisal data, and listing history into plain explanations of what buyers are betting on and how those deals affect surrounding property owners and nearby businesses.