The site of a Burger King adjacent to the Drexel Town Square development in Oak Creek has sold for $2.3 million, according to state records.
The roughly 1-acre site, located 8081 S. Howell Ave., sold for well over its assessed fair market value of $989,600, Milwaukee County assessment records show. The property was sold by an affiliate of Chicago-based Cave Enterprises to Gran Sasso Inc. Retirement Savings Plan Trust. The trust lists its address in Chula Vista, California.
Cave Enterprises declined to comment on the transaction. The company operates more than 120 restaurants, including around 60 restaurants in Wisconsin. It recently purchased a site in Menomonee Falls, and has plans to build a new Burger King restaurant there.
The commercial site lies just south of the 85-acre retail, commercial, residential and civic Drexel Town Square development near the corner of South Howell Avenue and East Drexel Avenue.
Prior to the development of Drexel Town Square, the site was home to a manufacturing center built in 1957 by Delco Electronics. The site was used by a number of companies throughout the years. The plant closed in 2008 after its operator at the time, Delphi Electronics & Safety, went bankrupt. Then Wispark LLC, the development arm of WEC Energy Group, acquired the vacant land in 2011.
Wispark is the master developer for Drexel Town Square and has led the redevelopment of the site, with assistance from $30 million in tax increment financing from the city, a nearly $1 million commitment from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District for a new stormwater management system as well as a $1.15 million state grant for work related to environmental cleanup.
