Gruber Law Offices will move its office to the 411 East Wisconsin Center building at 411 E. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Milwaukee, according to a permit filed with the city.
The firm is currently headquartered about two blocks away at the 100 East building, at 100 E. Wisconsin Ave., which was sold earlier this year and is to be converted into apartments, necessitating office tenants in the building to move out.
Gruber will lease about 22,500 square feet on the 19th floor of the 30-story 411 East Wisconsin Center building, the permit says. The company has about 130 employees, according to its website, 25 of which are attorneys.
Built in 1985, the building at 411 E. Wisconsin Ave. has about 188,000 square feet of available space (including the space Gruber will occupy), according to marketing materials from commercial real estate firm Colliers. The building is also home to law firms von Briesen & Roper and Quarles & Brady.
Gruber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gruber is among the last remaining tenants at the 100 East building to select a new office location. Built in 1989, the 435,629-square-foot 100 East building was once one of downtown Milwaukee’s premier office addresses. But the building has lost several tenants in recent years and went into foreclosure in 2021. The building was placed into receivership and later sold to a development group that includes
Michael Klein of
Klein Development and restaurateur
John Vassallo.
The group plans to convert the building’s office space into up to 400 apartments, but has not released detailed plans.
[caption id="attachment_567919" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
100 East. Credit: Jon Elliott[/caption]
The conversion plans for the building have led to the remaining office tenants at 100 East to relocate, including
Sperling Law Office, which will occupy 2,300 square feet at 411 E. Wisconsin Ave., law firm
Hinshaw and Culbertson, which will occupy 6,800 square feet at BMO Tower, and
Marietta Investment Partners, which will occupy about 3,000 square feet in the 833 East office building.
The conversion, however,
could face a financing challenge after a state board rejected the building’s nomination for historic status earlier this year.
The development group has said that federal and state historic preservation tax credits are crucial to help finance the project, but would require the building to be listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places in order to be awarded. The Wisconsin Historic Preservation Review Board voted to reject 100 East’s register nomination citing that the building is only 35 years old and most buildings aren’t given historic designation until they are 50 years old.
In the meantime, the development team has been pulling permits with the City of Milwaukee to convert some of the building's systems from commercial to residential use, such as its plumbing and HVAC systems, but did not immediately respond to request for comment on the status of the project.
