Investment advisory firm Riverwater Partners LLC plans to move from Mequon to the 1433 North Water Street redevelopment project at the former Laacke & Joys site in downtown Milwaukee.
The firm will lease about 2,000 square feet in the building, beginning in May.
It will join anchor tenant Bader Rutter & Associates, which is moving its headquarters to the development from Brookfield.
“Downtown Milwaukee is where a lot of business takes place,” said Adam Peck, founder and chief investment officer of Riverwater Partners. “We have an office in Mequon, but we are downtown every day for meetings.”
Riverwater Partners is an independent, employee-owned money management firm.
Currently, the company has four employees, but Peck is hoping to add staff as he grows his client base.
Wauwatosa-based Wangard Partners is developing a 113,830-square-foot office building at the former Laacke & Joys site. The firm is currently tearing down a four-story, 142-year-old building, and another building on the site, while keeping one four story building, built in 1930.
A new five-story office building would be built attached to the 1930 building, which would also be used as office space, according to the plans.
The property is owned by Riverwater Partners.
Adam Peck said he hasn’t settled on which space his firm will lease yet, but said he is hoping for a city view. Bader Rutter is leasing 60,000 square feet on the first, second and part of the third floors.
“I’m hoping for a vibrant view of downtown,” Peck said. “This is a central location and the north end will really be where it is at in a year or two.”
Riverwater Partners is the latest in a growing number of businesses moving from the suburbs to downtown.
Besides Bader Rutter, other companies that plan to move downtown include Brookfield-based Hammes Company, which plans to build a five-story office tower in the Park East Corridor and will move its headquarters there. Fond du Lac-based Badger Liquor will move 100 office workers from West Allis to the Schlitz Park complex near downtown Milwaukee.
