Complete with a drumline performance and pyrotechnics, Northwestern Mutual kicked off construction of the company’s $500 million transformation of its North Office Building in downtown Milwaukee at a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday.
The 540,000-square-foot North Office Building is located at 818 E. Mason St. and was built in 1990. It is one of four office buildings on the company’s headquarters campus downtown. Exterior renovations planned for the building will mirror the 32-story, 1.1 million-square-foot Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons building that opened at its downtown campus in 2017, just south of the North Office Building.
“Every time I fly into Milwaukee, I love the way our building shows up on the skyline and I think the fact that we’re gonna have a sister tower right next to it is just gonna make it even more beautiful,” said John Schlifske, chief executive officer of Northwestern Mutual.
Announced in February, the project could be completed by 2027.
“It’s going to expand our world class headquarters, further connect Northwestern Mutual employees and ultimately provide unbelievable opportunities for Milwaukee residents,” Schlifske said. “The project we’re embarking on today marks a new chapter for our company and I think for downtown Milwaukee.”
Schlifske said the campus is a hub for 8,000 employees at Northwestern Mutual’s offices in Milwaukee, Franklin and New York City, as well as over 7,600 employees who visit the campus yearly. Northwestern Mutual will move its nearly 2,000 employees to the new North Office Building from its Franklin campus.
Leaders from Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co. and Milwaukee’s CG Schmidt Inc., the project’s general contractor and construction manager, along with Mayor Cavalier Johnson emphasized the opportunities the project creates for jobs in construction and other trades.
“This is going to be a great skyline-defining project, it’s going to create an opportunity to put more people in Milwaukee to work,” Johnson said. “It creates opportunities for people who live in the most challenged neighborhoods to work in the trades, to skill-up and be able to have a family-supporting career in the future. That’s something we should not sleep on.”
As part of the North Office Building renovations, Northwestern Mutual wants to expand its “commons space” with with a public conservatory, terraces and other streetscaping.
“The Northwestern Mutual project is a driver of economic development in Milwaukee, bringing more employees downtown to work at a dynamic campus, an activating the space in new and engaging ways for our community,” said Ald. Bob Bauman, whose district includes downtown Milwaukee.
