The company makes industrial water treatment systems that, for example, remove metal particles from water used in metal finishing. The nine-person company is to move to Franklin in January. Dougherty said he will try to find tenants to lease the extra space.

“For the last year or so I’ve been looking for a building that was approximately 20,000 square feet,” Dougherty said. “The price basically came down to something very similar to something we were looking for.”

The building sold for $275,000, said Kevin Riordan, a partner and the retail team leader at The Boerke Co., Milwaukee. Riordan represented Advanced Chemical in the deal. Ideal Tall Pines Corp. sold the building.

Advanced Chemical may expand into more of the building if its research with UWM’s Geissinger bears fruit, Dougherty said. The two received aNational Science Foundation grant to develop a new sensor technology that can detect trace amounts of metals and other pollutants in water.

They will apply for another grant to further the research, he said. If they secure the money, they will perform that work in the Franklin building over the next two years.

Making energy of waste

Centrisys Corp. bought a third building in Kenosha to expand its operations and set up the North American headquarters office for a German partner.

Centrisys makes centrifuges that spin the water out of sludge in municipal waste water treatment plants. The company outgrew its two existing buildings in Kenosha, so it took the opportunity to buy a neighboring 19,220-sqaure-foot building at 9535 58th Place, said Michele Whitfield, Centrisys’ marketing manager.

Klein-Dickert Milwaukee Inc. sold the building, according to city records. Cassidy Turley Barry, Milwaukee, represented both parties in the deal.

Beyond Centrisys’ own growth, the new building will serve a partnership with SH+E Gruppe, a German company that makes systems that generate power at treatment plants by using waste as fuel, Whitfield said. The new building will house offices of SH+E Gruppe’s North American headquarters as it expands in the U.S. market, she said.

“This is a prime example of not everything going overseas,” Whitfield said.

Brick house

A Michigan-based maker of landscaping bricks is seeking state support to establish a manufacturing and retail facility in Jackson.

The company is moving into a 7.6-acre property and building near Highway 45. Manthei Development Corp., a South Charlevoix, Mich., company related to the landscaping business, bought it for $850,000, according to state records.

The company picked the location after searching everywhere between Gary, Ind., and the north side of metro Milwaukee, said Abe Manthei, general manager of landscaper MDC Contracting, a sister company to Manthei Development.

“We sell in the Chicago and Milwaukee market and we’re opening a second manufacturing facility for the Chicago and Milwaukee market,” Manthei said. “We hope to be manufacturing next year and selling out of there in the spring.”

Manthei said he is talking with Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.and Economic Development Washington County officials to get a low-interest loan and tax credits to support the facility. He said Wisconsin Gov.Scott Walker called him to encourage siting the facility in Wisconsin.

“We like Wisconsin because it has a business-friendly climate,” Manthei said.

The company has 25 people in its manufacturing plant in South Charlevoix, where it makes pavers, retaining wall blocks and other stone materials for landscaping. He said the number of employees at the Wisconsin plant has not been determined.