Real estate deal of the week

Wispark LLC, the real estate subsidiary of Wisconsin Energy Corp., announced this week that the 155,000-square-foot, 103-year-old Time Warner building at 1320 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in downtown Milwaukee has been sold to CapLease LP, a New York-based real estate investment trust (REIT), for $28.53 million. Todd Rizzo, regional director for Wispark, handled the sale of the property for the ownership group, Riverfront Power LLC, which is majority-controlled by Wisconsin Energy Capital Corp., but also includes developers Gary Grunau and Scott Sampson. The five-story building was sold for $185 per square foot, Rizzo said. “The investment marketplace was very receptive to this property offering as indicated by the sale price per square foot,” he said. “The sale further validates the abundance of capital in the marketplace that is looking for good investment opportunities as well as the perceived value out-of-town buyers assign to real estate in Milwaukee.” The property was formerly known as the Commerce Street Power Plant and was operated by Wisconsin Electric Power Co. (WEPCO) as a coal-fired power plant until it was decommissioned in 1988. Then the building sat vacant until a renovation project began in 1999 and was completed in 2001, when Time Warner moved in. Time Warner occupies the entire building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Historic tax credits were used to help pay for the building’s conversion from a power plant into an office building.