Several years after the Park East freeway was demolished development in the corridor is finally picking up and some retail tenants are signing leases.
The latest deal is a Upright Coffee espresso bar and coffee shop that will lease 1,373 square feet of space in The Flatiron building at 1550-60 N. Water St., Milwaukee.
Though small, the deal is significant because the retail space in The Flatiron has remained vacant since the six-story building was completed in 2008.
Cory Sovine of Siegel-Gallagher brokered the deal for the buiding’s owner, Legacy Real Estate Partners LLC. Sean Osborne of Colliers International|Wisconsin brokered the deal for Upright Coffee.
The announcement about the deal comes one week after CBRE announced that Jimmy John’s leased 1,500 square feet of space and Great Clips Salon leased 1,000 square feet of space in Avenir, which is being built by Wangard one block south of The Flatiron building in the Park East corridor.
The Flatiron building still has a vacant 1,488-square-foot retail space. Sovine said he received a letter of intent for that space on Monday. The potential tenant is a “retail services use,” he said, declining to provide more detail.
“I think it would be a good fit for the area,” he said. “(But) we’re a ways away from a deal.”
The prevous lack of interest by retail tentants in the Park East corridor “seems to be changing,” Sovine said.
“Any activity begets more activity,” he said. “Momentum is always a big thing in our industry.”
Upright Coffee currently has two locations in New York and was started by a pair of Milwaukee-area natives.
