Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. has increased the size of the new office tower that it plans to build at its downtown Milwaukee corporate headquarters.
The company now plans to build a 1.1 million square foot building. The original plans, announced in December, were for an 840,000-square-foot building.
The total cost for the building is now estimated at $350 million to $400 million, according to plans submitted to the city.
The additional space is not expected to increase the height of the building, Northwestern Mutual spokeswoman Betsy Hoylman said. The building is still expected to be between 30 and 35 stories tall, she said.
The additional space will be added to the common area base of the building, which will become wider, Hoylman said.
“In the course of our design work with the architects we determined that we need additional square footage for the common area, the base area of the building,” Hoylman said.
The common area base of the building will include space for training, an employee cafeteria and space accessible to the public, Hoylman said.
By increasing the size of the building, the city’s proposed tax incremental financing (TIF) for the project is increased from $48 million to $54 million. The TIF will be developer-financed, which means the project will be paid for by Northwestern Mutual up front and the TIF funds will be reimbursed as the company pays property taxes for the new building, said Jeff Fleming, spokesman for the Department of City Development.
“The city is not exposed to any risk (that way),” Fleming said.
Northwestern Mutual also has increased its jobs projection for the new building. The company now says it plans to add 1,900 jobs at the building by 2030. Previously the company said it planned to add 1,700 jobs there by 2025.
The new building also will retain 1,100 existing jobs at the company’s downtown Milwaukee headquarters.
The TIF request for the project will be reviewed Tuesday by the Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee.
New Haven, Conn.-based Pickard Chilton is the design architect for the project. Houston-based Kendall/Heaton Associates will be the architect of record for the project.
Renderings for the new building will be released by the end of the year, Hoylman said.
The new building will replace a 35-year-old. 16-story, 452,000-square-foot building on the Northwestern Mutual campus, which will be torn down.
