A
Kohl’s sign is planned for the top of
The Buckler apartment building at 401 W. Michigan Ave. in downtown Milwaukee, according to plans submitted to the city.
Kohl’s
opened a new store in November at the
HUB640 building, which is located just northeast of The Buckler apartment building.
The HUB640 building, located at 640 N. Vel R. Phillips Ave., is owned by Chicago-based
North Wells Capital, which is seeking a permit from the city to install the Kohl’s sign on The Buckler building.
The Kohl's sign would face south towards I-794.
The Buckler is an 11-story, 207-unit apartment building, owned by New York-based
iStar Financial Inc. It was formerly an office building for Blue Cross Blue Shield and a redevelopment project to convert it into apartments was completed in 2016.
The cost to install the Kohl’s sign on the building is estimated at $130,000. According to information submitted to the city, under a 10-year lease agreement, North Wells Capital would pay the owner of The Buckler building between $42,000 and $50,193 a year to have the Kohl’s sign on top of the building.
The HUB640 building is also the future location of the corporate headquarters for
Fiserv, which will move there from Brookfield. Buildout of the 160,000-square-foot space for the company is nearing completion. The company recently
sought a temporary occupancy permit for the space.
In information submitted to the city, North Wells Capital indicated that the plans for the Kohl’s sign are important for its lease deals with Kohl’s and Fiserv.
“The undertaking of the installation of the Kohl’s sign at The Buckler is the aggregation of a multi-pronged negotiation involving Kohl’s, Fiserv, the city of Milwaukee and North Wells Capital,” North Wells Capital wrote to the city in its permit application for the Kohl’s sign. “Kohl’s required a signage package commensurate with other Kohl’s locations, inclusive of a sign located at the top of the structure. At the same time Fiserv was considering relocating its global headquarters to HUB640…at the direction of municipality personnel, in an effort to accommodate both Kohl’s and Fiserv, HUB640 was instructed to seek alternate locations for the Kohl’s building sign, with The Buckler being adjacent and the most logical location…because of the intertwined nature of these concessions and negotiations, should we run into an unforeseen circumstance where the sign is not allowed to be installed there is a risk that both Kohl’s and Fiserv would enforce provisions allowing both tenants to vacate the downtown market. In essence, the installation of this sign, and the necessary variances to accomplish such will facilitate bringing both Kohl’s and Fiserv into the downtown Milwaukee market.”
[caption id="attachment_584242" align="aligncenter" width="1280"]
The Buckler apartment building in downtown Milwaukee.[/caption]
