Dive Brief:

• Northwestern Mutual plans a $450 million downtown development project, the Tower and Commons, that will be capped by a 32-story office tower on which construction will start next September.
• The Milwaukee Building and Construction Trades Council's president, Lyle Balistreri, says he will wait until contractors have been selected and then try to get a project labor agreement guaranteeing union-set wages.
• Hines is Northwestern's developer for the project.

Dive Insight:

Balistreri says he would "be crazy" not to ask for a PLA for the project. Saying that a PLA is intended to avoid labor disputes during the project may be an indication of the leverage Balistreri will have in the negotiations—if Hines and Northwestern agree to them. One question will be whose ox, or perhaps oxen, will get gored if a PLA comes to pass.