New Berlin-based WMH Leasing LLC wants to create an environmentally friendly and tenant-friendly environment in the Fountain Brook Crossing office building that the firm plans to construct northeast of Moorland Road and Greenfield Avenue in Brookfield.
The four-story building will have 115,000 square feet of lease-able office space. The building will be 97 feet high and will have several outdoor fountains, creating a prominent presence at one of Brookfield’s gateways.
“The purpose and design of the building is to be a gateway (to Brookfield), and to be different than any other building in the metro area,” said Bill Hoeg, managing member of WMH Leasing LLC.
“The City of Brookfield wanted this to be signature architecture,” said Michael Queoff, regional manager of Kaukauna-based Keller Inc., which is the designer and general contractor for the project. “The first thing you are going to see (driving from New Berlin on Moorland Road into Brookfield) is this signature architecture. It’s going to be a statement.”
One of the building’s most unique features is its diamond facet design. The design gives the exterior of the building a zig-zag look instead of a typical flat wall look. The diamond facet design provides a unique architectural flair to the building, said Keller architect Curtis Schroeder. In addition, each facet is large enough to fit an individual office space into it.
The natural lighting in the building will be extensive, which will benefit the tenants and their workers by helping to reduce the wintertime blahs, Hoeg said. That should help imrove employee productivity, he said.
“Our real goal is to get as much light as possible into the core,” Schroeder said. Sensors in the building will turn the interior lights off if enough light is shining in from the outside.
The light sensors are just one of several environmentally-friendly “green” features that the building will have and WMH Leasing is seeking LEED certification for the project. The building will have a roof top garden, which will absorb storm water run-off and reduce heating and cooling costs. People in the building will also have access to the roof top garden. The building’s other green features include low flow urinals and toilets.
Other amenities are planned to make the building an inviting place to be. A four-story waterfall will splash down inside the atrium.
The building will also have two levels of underground parking.
The soil at the building site is soft so Keller will have to install 75-foot long steel caissons to stabilize the base of the building, Queoff said.
The building’s location in Brookfield, just off of Interstate 94, also is a strategic advantage for the project, Hoeg said.
“Within 30 minutes you can be in just about anyplace in the metro area,” he said. “It’s on the way to everywhere, almost.”
The site is kitty-corner to the site where developer Don Kitten plans to build the Deer Creek Inn & Conference Center project. The project consists of a 405-room hotel with an indoor water park, a conference center, restaurants and stores.
“I see (Deer Creek) as an opportunity to enhance the area and the site,” Hoeg said. “I joke that I just hope that they’re finished with their dust before we make our dust.”
WMH Leasing is hoping to start construction of Fountain Brook Crossing this winter and have the project complete near the end of 2009.
Two tenants have been obtained so far. Spring Bank will occupy about 10,000 square feet of space (one-third of the first floor) and Gentle Family Dentistry, owned by Hoeg’s wife (Dr. Lanae Fox), will occupy 5,500 to 7,000 square feet of space.
Other prospective tenants also are expressing interest, Hoeg said. So far about 15 percent of the office space is leased and WMH Leasing needs to lease about 87 percent of the space to begin construction, he said.
Fountain Brook Crossing
- Location: Northeast corner of Greenfield Avenue and Moorland Road in Brookfield
- Office space: 115,000 square feet
- Height: Four stories (97 feet)
- Developer: WMH Leasing LLC
- Architect: Keller Inc.
- General contractor: Keller Inc.
- Web page: www.fountainbrookcrossing.com/
