Milwaukee-based manufacturer
Rite-Hite is requesting approval to tear down a 110-year-old, 204,323-square-foot building at 222 W. Freshwater Way near its new corporate headquarters campus in the Walker's Point neighborhood, according to a raze permit application filed with the city.
The vacant, triangular-shaped building, which is mostly 8 stories tall but a portion of it is 11 stories tall, once housed the Courteen Seed Co. It is now owned by an affiliate of Rite-Hite.
SixSibs Capital, a Rite-Hite affiliate, bought the building this year and looked at options for redeveloping it, according to a statement from Rite-Hite.
"Development plans for the property are in the early stages with nothing definitive to share at this time," it said.
According to the raze permit application, the building was constructed in 1913 as a seed warehouse. The building was listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places in 2008, the raze permit application says. The application indicates that the building's condition has significantly deteriorated.
"In general, the building is not in acceptable condition both externally and internally," raze permit application documents say. "The building has serious issues in the form of severe concrete spall, cracks, exposed reinforcing with corrosion, brick disintegration, and loss."
A pre-demolition assessment conducted by Virgina-based Ramboll US Consulting Inc. lists their clients as Rite-Hite and SixSibs, an affiliate of Rite-Hite.
In June, an affiliate of Rite-Hite purchased a mostly empty property at 310 W. Freshwater Way, according to state real estate records. That 2.6-acre property connects the former Courteen Seed building at 222 W. Freshwater Way to the Rite-Hite's new corporate headquarters campus to the west.
Rite-Hite completed construction of its new corporate headquarters earlier this year. The 9.5-acre campus includes a four-story office building on the north side of Freshwater Way and a two-story, 119,000-square-foot building on the south side of the road. The buildings are connected by a skywalk over the road. There is also a parking structure to the west of the south building.
The company is a manufacturer of loading dock equipment, industrial doors, safety barriers, industrial fans and other in-plant products.
