After almost 12 years of owning and operating The Irish Pub in Milwaukee’s historic Third Ward, owner John Duggan has sold both the business and the building, located at 124 N. Water St.
The two-story structure, built in 1904, sold on Wednesday for $1.3 million to Chicago-based Alliance 37 LLC, which is registered to Adam Weber of Riverwoods, Ill. Duggan said Weber is an experienced restauranteur with family ties to Wisconsin, hoping to establish himself within Milwaukee’s restaurant industry. Weber could not be immediately contacted for comment.
The building– previously home to longtime LGBT bar, the M&M Club– sold for $511,000 more than its current property assessment of $829,000.
According to Duggan, Weber plans to make only limited changes to The Irish Pub, operating it under its current name and keeping its current staff. A sign on the building’s window indicates The Irish Pub temporarily closed Dec. 11 through Dec. 14 and will reopen today, Dec. 15, but the bar still appears shuttered.
Duggan, a senior vice president at Chicago-based real estate firm, The Concord Group, bought the building in May, 2006 with co-owners Tom Coffey and Ed Stritch and shortly after, opened The Irish Pub. Coffey is a senior associate at New York City-based human resources consulting firm, Mercer and Stritch is president and CEO of The Concord Group.
The three sold the bar because they decided “it was just time to move on,” Duggan said.
“We built a successful business there and created many happy times for many different people, and lots of people have shared those happy memories with me,” Duggan said. “As owners and staff, we are proud to have created an atmosphere that has created so many great memories over the years.”
Neither Duggan, Coffey nor Stritch have immediate plans to stay involved with Milwaukee’s restaurant scene.
