Associated Bank, part of Green Bay-based Associated Banc-Corp., announced recently that it plans to add a third office location in downtown Milwaukee. Associated Bank will occupy 23,000 square feet of office space at Two Plaza East, 330 E. Kilbourn Ave., beginning in July.
Construction work has already begun inside the Two Plaza East building for the Associated Bank space. The work includes installation of information technology equipment and wiring. Over the next few months, Associated Bank plans to install prominent signage atop the 13-story building.
The company will have about 100 employees at Two Plaza East, including president and chief operating officer Lisa Binder, southeast region president and director of commercial banking David Baumgarten and teams of small-business bankers, trust officers, wealth management advisors and marketing associates.
Most of those employees will be relocated from Associated Bank’s existing downtown Milwaukee office space at 401 E. Kilbourn Ave. and 815 N. Water St.
"We are totally out of space in our facility on Kilbourn, across the street," Baumgarten said.
The new office space will have room to add more employees later. It will also free up space in Associated Bank’s existing downtown office space to add more employees there later, Baumgarten said. Associated Bank will maintain all of its existing downtown office space, he said.
"The long term plan is to add more people (in downtown Milwaukee)," company spokesman Don Klein said. "This is a continuation of our expansion in the Milwaukee market. The other two buildings were very crowded. This will free up some space."
Associated Bank plans to add 20 additional "officer level" jobs in Milwaukee during the rest of the year, Baumgarten said.
Associated Bank occupies three floors in the 401 E. Kilbourn Ave. building, with a branch, its trust department and executives including Binder. At the 815 N. Water St. building, the company has another branch and its marketing department.
With the addition of Associated Bank, the 450,000-square-foot Plaza East office complex is now about 92 percent occupied. The building has only about 35,000 square feet of available space, and the largest block of available space is about 8,900 square feet said Ned Purtell of RFP Commercial Inc., which brokers the leases for the building. A 10,000-square-foot block is expected to be available at the end of the year, he said.
"(Plaza East is) ahead of the market," Purtell said. "The market is about 15 to 16 percent vacant. We’ve got great leasing activity (at Plaza East). We’ve got several smaller deals on the table in the 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot range."
The downtown office market appears to be picking up a bit, Purtell said.
"I think everybody’s just getting more confident in the economy," he said.
