A once-thriving industrial cornerstone on Milwaukee’s northwest side is entering a new chapter.
The former Master Lock campus, which closed its doors last year after more than eight decades of operation, was sold to a new-to-market redevelopment firm from the St. Louis area that aims to find new tenants to fill the space.
Commercial Development Co., a redevelopment firm making its first foray into the Milwaukee market, purchased the 26-acre property at 2600 N. 32nd St. for $2.6 million, a transaction that included machinery and equipment.
CDC plans to refill the space with new industrial space users. The company said the building is an attractive option, because of its location and development attributes, including three 20-ton freight elevators and fully fenced and secured premises, according to a statement from CDC.
“Our acquisition of this retired manufacturing plant is the first step to restoring the property to productive use – our team is well equipped to reposition this site for its next stage of life, likely to be industrial operations,” said Adam Kovacs, executive vice president of acquisitions for CDC.
However, some local industrial real estate experts are more cautious in their optimism for the site.
“There are obvious challenges that properties in that location have,” said Jim Barry III, president of Milwaukee commercial real estate firm The Barry Company.
Chief among them is limited access to the freeway, a perception of crime in the area and comparatively higher taxes in the city of Milwaukee. Additionally, some of the buildings on the property date back to the early 20th century, which can be harder to retrofit for modern manufacturing.
With 780,000 square feet of industrial space, the fully fenced property includes a mix of single- and multi-story warehouses as well as parking lots and undeveloped land that could be used for additional buildings.
In a tight industrial real estate market metro wide, large blocks of space can be attractive, though, and considering the Master Lock property’s energy capabilities and features, such as cranes, some brokers said the space could be an attractive option for another manufacturer, probably a local company already in the city.
“This could be a hidden gem for the right company,” Barry said.
CDC said it plans to retain the property’s existing buildings and find new users, including for manufacturing but also logistics, industrial storage and self-storage.
Industrial brokers said, however, that the site may struggle to attract logistics or distribution users due to its two-mile distance from the freeway and numerous intervening traffic lights.
As for industrial or self-storage, some community organizations are concerned those uses won’t make up for the 330 union jobs lost when Master Lock closed.
“There is a need for jobs in the community,” said Cheryl Blue, executive director of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor’s Business Improvement District. “Master Lock had a history of having great jobs on this site for over 100 years, and we would like to see that continue.”
Blue said her primary concerns are making sure that the environmental contamination at the site is cleaned up, that the buildings do not fall into disrepair and that there is transparency and communication between the BID and its partners in the community and the new owner and its prospective buyers or tenants.
“We want the redevelopment of this site to be something geared towards the higher aspirations for the neighborhood and the historic businesses in the 30th Street Industrial Corridor,” Blue said. “We believe that redevelopment should contribute to activating the area in a positive way.”
Founded in 1990, CDC is a privately held real estate acquisition and development firm that specializes in repositioning and redeveloping underutilized, distressed or environmentally challenged properties. In Maryland, the company is planning to bring logistics facilities to a former steel mill, according to its website, and, in Massachusetts, the company is hoping to develop an offshore wind manufacturing hub on the site of a former coal power plant.
However, that’s not the case for several CDC-owned properties — including one in Wisconsin.
The company purchased the former 115-acre General Motors assembly plant in Janesville in 2017 and, in 2019, demolished the site’s existing buildings. Still undeveloped, the City of Janesville in 2024 initiated a process to condemn the property, saying it was blighted and that CDC was delinquent in its property taxes, according to city documents. In April, the city made an offer to purchase the property in hopes of finding and supporting development plans.
CDC did not respond to requests for further comment.
