A grand opening event will be held today for the opening of a call center by Madison-based CapTel Inc., a division of Ultratec Inc., in the Reuss Federal Plaza building at 310 W. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Milwaukee. CapTel is leasing 16,151 square feet of space in the building.
CapTel is a rapidly growing company that offers captioned telephone service for people with hearing loss. The company has already hired 50 employees for its downtown Milwaukee call center, and plans to hire 150 more by the end of the year. Over five years the company is expected to create 600 new jobs at the call center.
The addition of CapTel is a boost for the Reuss Federal Plaza, which has struggled to fill space in recent years as some tenants, including the U.S. Forest Service and the Internal Revenue Service, have moved to other downtown buildings. The 540,000-square-foot building still has about 220,000 square feet of vacant space, said David Pudlosky, a broker for The Boerke Company, which handles the leasing for the building. The building is managed by CB Richard Ellis.
However, the building is attracting some new tenants. In addition to CapTel, York, Pa.-based Bon-Ton Stores Inc. recently announced that it will lease 42,000 square feet of space in the building. The company needed additional space to its location across the street in the Boston Store building. Also, The Capital Grille, an upscale steakhouse chain, opened a restaurant in the Reuss building last year.
The owners of the Reuss building, RAIT Investment Trust (a Philadelphia-based real estate investment trust) and Federal Plaza Associates, are trying to re-brand the building as 310 West. The building is privately owned, but many people mistakenly believe it is owned by the government, because of the Reuss Federal Plaza name, said Jackie Pichotta, assistant real estate manager for the building. A new logo and sign are in the works for the building to reflect the new marketing name, although it will still probably be known by many people as the Reuss Federal Plaza, she said.
"We’re trying to veer from the Federal Plaza to the 310 West building," Pichotta said.
