Pabst Brewing Company will open a satellite office in the former Pabst brewery complex in downtown Milwaukee.
The company shut down the Milwaukee brewery in 1996. Milwaukee-based Zilber Ltd. has led a redevelopment of the complex into a mixed-use neighborhood with apartments, a hotel, higher educational facilities and office space.
And now Pabst is bringing some operations back to the former brewery complex. The company will occupy a 2,100-square-foot office space in the Pabst Professional Center, a new office building in the complex which was completed in 2014 and is now 100 percent leased. The building is located across Juneau Avenue from the former First German Methodist Church, where Pabst plans to open a small “innovation brewery,” tasting room, restaurant and bar.
Pabst will occupy one suite on the third floor of the 40,000-square-foot Pabst Professional Center building at 1036 W. Juneau Ave. The company will use the office as collaborative space for its local employees and visiting staff from its San Antonio headquarters and other locations including Dallas, Los Angeles and Atlanta, according to Madisen Maher Architects, the firm designing the space.
“Seeing that Pabst was founded in Milwaukee in 1844, this will be a great nesting spot for team members to call home while they’re here,” said Scott Sweeney, senior director of brewery and retail, in a statement “The master brewer and facility manager will also have offices here, right next to our innovation brewery in the former Pabst brewery complex.”
Michael Kelly, executive vice president of Blue Ribbon Management, the developer for the Pabst Professional Center building, said Pabst will be the last tenant to occupy the building when it moves in April.
TCF Bank has leased the fifth floor, Klement Sausage Company’s corporate offices will be on the fourth floor, Logicalis, an IT consulting firm, SafeNet Consulting and Pabst will be on the third floor. The first and second floors of the building is structured parking.
Blue Ribbon Management is also the firm that is redeveloping the former First German Methodist Church building.
Nomad World Pub owner and Lowlands Group co-founder, Mike Eitel was planning to operate the restaurant and bar planned for the building, but pulled out of the project in September. The bar and restaurant will move forward with the project being taken over by Pabst, Kelly said.
Kelly declined to give a specific timeline for the project in the former First German Methodist Church building, but said plans would be “virtually unchanged,” from original plans that included Eitel.
“The plans are still what we presented and got approval from the state and federal government,” Kelly said.
