Fueled by steady growth, Green Bay-based Fairchild Equipment is doubling its local real estate footprint with a property on Milwaukee's far northwest side.
In August, an affiliate of Fairchild purchased two industrial buildings totaling 121,000 square feet at 5500 N. Lovers Lane Road. The $4.5 million deal includes an 8.2-acre site that was previously home to a PepsiCo distribution center. State records show the seller was a New York-based affiliate of PepsiCo.
Fairchild, which provides forklifts, rack systems, parts and other warehouse equipment, has outgrown its current footprint in Menomonee Falls, where it owns two buildings totaling about 50,000 square feet and leases another 10,000 square feet.
“We tried our best to connect the two with a road, but it's suboptimal,” said Van Clarkson, president of Fairchild Equipment. “There's still two buildings that are 100 yards apart, and you're constantly having to transfer equipment back and forth, you have to keep parts in two separate facilities, and it just stopped being efficient. To top it all off, we outgrew that."
The new site gives Fairchild more than double the space and the opportunity to consolidate and modernize operations. While the company is thinking about leasing a "small portion" of the building initially, the majority will be used for operations, including a large service shop, warehousing space and about 10,000 square feet of office space.
A key feature will be an “experience center” for customer demonstrations.
“(The experience center) will have different types of racking and shelving and storage solutions, so we can bring a customer in and demonstrate how the equipment will work in their application,” Clarkson said.
The company employs about 400 people across the Upper Midwest, including 100 to 120 in the Milwaukee area. Clarkson said they hope to grow the local team by 20% within the first year or two of opening the new site.
While Fairchild has completed a few acquisitions, most of the company’s growth has been organic.
“It’s been mostly about gaining market share, adding product lines and expanding into related industries like agriculture and construction," Clarkson said.
Amid a tight industrial real estate market—with Waukesha County's vacancy rate at less than 2% and vacancy in most of suburban Milwaukee also low—Clarkson said it took time to find the right facility.
"We've been busting at the seams here since about 2019 just waiting for the right property," Clarkson said. "You can either build from scratch exactly what you need, or you can take something that's not exactly what you need and make it what you need."
The building has been pressure washed, and repainting of the exterior is beginning soon, with the goal to have a grand opening in spring. Waukesha-based
Duffek Construction is leading the renovation project.
"It's been a bit of an eyesore, but it's going to be a really fantastic facility for us, and I would think the neighbors in the area are going to be very appreciative once it's complete," Clarkson said.
