Atlas gets additional investors to pay off The Tannery financing

Atlas Development Corp. has brought on additional investors in The Tannery office park in Milwaukee to pay off $17.4 million in financing for the property.
A 10-year note for the financing recently came due, said Atlas vice president Peter Moede. The note was recently purchased by Salt Lake City, Utah-based SilverLeaf Financial, which will act as an intermediary until Atlas and the other investors pay off the loan, which will happen soon, Moede said. He declined to name the new investors.
The $17.4 million financing that Atlas and its investors plan to pay off is a portion of the total financing for the property, Moede said.
The Tannery is located at 720 W. Virginia St. near the south end of Milwaukee’s Sixth Street Viaduct in the Walker’s Point neighborhood. It is owned by Atlas Development Corp. and consists of four office buildings with a total of 320,000 square feet of space. The brick buildings were built between 1890 and 1913 and were originally used by the Pfiser & Vogel tannery and by Empire Brewery, which eventually became the Pabst Brewing Company. The complex also includes the Great Lakes Distillery building and a vacant building that has not been redeveloped. The complex covers a total of 10.34 acres.
The Tannery has lost some tenants in recent years including Verizon Wireless, Mueller Communications Inc., 2-Story Creative, The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee and Independence First.
The Tannery’s office space now has an occupancy rate of about 70 percent, Moede said. It has a total of 20 tenants, according to SilverLeaf.
“If we could get (occupancy) up to 85 percent that would be great,” Moede said. “We’ve been pursuing some leads, but the market has been pretty dead. It hasn’t been a lot of fun. We’re going to cut some pretty attractive deals pretty soon. We’re really trying to attack the market.”
Despite the rising vacancy rate, Moede said Atlas has never missed a mortgage payment for The Tannery.
SilverLeaf Financial said it continues to actively source and purchase quality assets in the distressed debt market. The company is a private equity firm focused on purchasing performing and non-performing, first deed of trust loans and loan pools from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), special servicers, banks and other financial institutions for the purpose of prompt monetization.