Next Generation shifts focus for downtown project to 2014-15

Next Generation Real Estate Inc., which has proposed a 6-story office building southeast of Wisconsin Avenue and Broadway in downtown Milwaukee, has shifted its focus to the future and is targeting tenants whose leases will be up in 2014-15.
Several major downtown tenants will have their leases expire in that time period.
“That’s where our focus is,” said Michael Levine, owner of Next Generation Real Estate.
Next Generation has not completely given up on attracting tenants whose leases will expire in 2012-13, such as Baker Tilly Virchow Krause and Von Briesen & Roper, but those tenants are focused on other sites and time is running out to sign them and build a building for them, Levine said.
Next Generation plans to build a $35 million building with 130,000 square feet of office space, 17,000 square feet of first floor retail space and 270 structured parking spaces along the south side of Wisconsin Avenue, east of Broadway.
But to make way for the new building, four historic buildings on the block would have to be demolished. The project will likely face objections from historic preservationists. Milwaukee Ald. Robert Bauman, who represents the downtown area, has promised to oppose the project if the facades of the historic buildings are not preserved.