PCI Group, a Milwaukee-based custom design and fabrication shop that offers services ranging from signs, banners, point-of-purchase displays, CNC machining, metal fabrication, photography, graphic design and more, has recently transformed its business and sold one of the three buildings on its campus.
The 42,000-square-foot industrial building that was sold by PCI will be demolished and will become part of the Rotary Centennial Arboretum, which is being developed by the Rotary Club of Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Urban River Foundation, Milwaukee’s Urban Ecology Center, the Milwaukee River Revitalization Foundation and Milwaukee County. The main entryway to the arboretum will be created near the site of the demolished building.
PCI finished moving out of the building in early October and has consolidated its operations into two buildings on the same site near the intersection of West Belleview Place and North Newhall Street on Milwaukee’s east side.
The building sold by PCI was acquired by Peter Godfrey, who is a trustee of the Milwaukee Urban River Foundation, said Mary McCormick, executive director of the Rotary Club of Milwaukee. The building will be demolished, she said, and the land will be incorporated into the 40-acre arboretum that is expected to be open by September, 2013.
“Their intention is to take the old building down, to implode it and they’ll cap it,” McCormick said. “It will be part of this land that will be reclaimed as forest. The intent is to have about 1,000 species of trees that are all native to Wisconsin in this 40 acre area.”
J.P. Persitza, founder of PCI Group, declined to give the building’s sale price, but said it sold for “market value.” Persitza said he and Godfrey had on-again off-again discussions about Godfrey buying the building for more than 10 years, but those discussions became more serious about a year ago when Persitza started thinking about making changes to the company.
Beginning in the mid 1980s and until about three years ago, a large part of PCI’s work was in building plastic and acrylic shelving used in retail stores. The company also became a distributor of sheet plastic and the building that it sold was devoted almost entirely to cutting, assembling and storing plastic shelving and components.
Persitza said increasing competitiveness and lower margins in the plastics business helped drive his decision to change his business model. He was also driven by a desire to design and build custom, one-of-a-kind displays, furniture and features for commercial buildings.
“This is now an expanded and more developed version of what I wanted to do 25 years ago when I started in business,” he said. “All I ever wanted to do was build stuff, unique, one-of-a-kind stuff. I spent 25 years doing big production runs. I came to the realization a few years ago that the only thing that will keep us distinct from everyone else with a CNC router and metal fab capabilities is the creative component.”
At one point in the late 1980s, PCI employed more than 90 people in its display manufacturing and plastic distribution business. Today, the company has nine full time employees and four part-time workers.
Over the past few months, PCI Group has renovated its two remaining buildings, which have about 13,000 square feet between them. The buildings, which are joined by a loading dock between them, now feature offices with photo editing and design software, a wood and plastic fabrication shop where displays and other pieces can be built, a CNC workshop and a metal fabrication shop.
As the arboretum project develops over the next few years, PCI Group will install new signage, fencing and landscaping, Persitza said.
The company, which has historically kept a low profile in the Milwaukee area, aims to tell more of its potential customers in southeastern Wisconsin about its services.
“With the niche we fill in this world, people who have needed us have found us,” Persitza said. “Now, for the first time ever, I am trying to find a way to (tell) people the range of things we can do. If you have something unique or custom, we’re one of the few places that will welcome you.”
