About two years ago, Schlitz Park developer Gary Grunau and his partner Scott Sampson began a $34 million, multi-phase renovation and redevelopment project to upgrade the former brewery just north of downtown Milwaukee that they had transformed into an office complex in the 1980s.
The complex had 1.2 million square feet of space and about 400,000 square feet of it was vacant or soon to become vacant.
The renovation project was done to upgrade the Schlitz Park space, but also to add numerous amenities including enhanced common areas, fitness centers and bicycle facilities. The goal was to make the complex a more appealing place to work, especially for younger workers that prefer to live in the downtown area, in hopes that would help attract more tenants.
Now the Schlitz Park renovation and redevelopment work is in its third and final phase and several new tenants have moved in or plan to move to the complex.
“It’s been an exciting summer,” Grunau said.
UMB Fund Services recently moved into 88,000 square feet of space in the Executive Building and Stockhouse Building, which are connected, at Schlitz Park. The firm moved from its previous location at 803 W. Michigan St. in downtown Milwaukee, where it occupied 72,000 square feet of space. UMB has 240 employees at its Milwaukee office and plans to add another 100 or so during the next four to five years.
The UMB deal made it possible to renovate the long vacant Executive and Stockhouse buildings, Grunau said. To make the renovation of those buildings successful, the former Schlitz Brewhouse building had to be demolished. That was an unfortunate loss of a major piece of Milwaukee’s brewing and architectural history, but the building had severe structural problems and after years to trying, Grunau determined that it could not be redeveloped. In addition, the Brewhouse building blocked views from the Executive and Stockhouse buildings, which prevented their redevelopment as well, he said.
“We struggled with this end of the project for quite a while, trying to figure out what to do with the Brewhouse,” Grunau said. “It was meant to make beer, not to hold people. If it hadn’t been for UMB, we wouldn’t be able to take that building down. We would still be stuck. Without UMB (The Executive and Stockhouse Building) would still be an old, ugly building. Now it’s a beautiful building.”
The Stockhouse Building was a storage building that lacked windows, which needed to be added to convert it to office space. However, that meant the project had to be done without the benefit of historic preservation tax credits. In addition, Schlitz Park no longer qualifies for new markets tax credits, Grunau said.
“This (renovation of the Executive and Stockhouse buildings) was built the old fashioned way, with debt and equity,” he said.
The Brewhouse has been demolished and now construction workers are transforming the site into a public square. Schlitz Park is reusing or recycling almost all of the materials and architectural elements from the Brewhouse.
UMB occupies the Executive Building’s first and second floors and the second and third floors of the Stockhouse Building. The UMB space has a modern feel within an old building, numerous conference rooms and a cafeteria on each of its three floors. One of the cafeterias has an outdoor patio.
“We were able to build out the amenities and the features that we wanted for our associates,” said Tony Fischer, the new president of UMB Fund Services. The firm designed the space to meet its needs for the next 10 years, said Maureen Quill, chief operating officer of UMB Fund Services.
The top three floors of the Stockhouse Building, which now has expansive views of downtown Milwaukee, are available for lease.
There is a total of 54,000 square feet of space available in the Stockhouse Building. The rest of Schlitz Park has 66,000 square feet of available space, so the 1.2 million-square-foot complex has a total of 120,000 square feet of available space.
Vacant office space has been on the decline at Schlitz Park as several other new tenants have signed leases. Readers Digest Association recently moved its Enthusiast Brands division, with 200 employees, from Greendale to a 54,000-square-foot space in the Bottlehouse building at Schlitz Park.
Also earlier this year, CorvisaCloud LLC announced plans to expand its Schlitz Park office space from 18,000 square feet to 35,000 square feet of space. The company said it is adding 100 jobs companywide.
The Readers Digest move and the CorvisaCloud expansion brought the Bottlehouse building to full capacity, Grunau said.
In addition, HSA Bank announced in June that it had signed a lease for 16,000 square feet of office space in Schlitz Park’s RiverCenter building, to relocate its office from Glendale. HSA Bank will bring 100 employees to Schlitz Park. The firm is partially moved in and will complete the move in September.
Meanwhile, workers are improving the Schlitz Park portion of West Galena Street, which will be reopened to the public running one way (east) in front of the Executive Building up to the Bottlehouse Building at North Second Street, which is also being improved.
Schlitz Park also recently announced plans to reopen the Brown Bottle Pub, located in the basement of the Stockhouse Building. The Brown Bottle Pub opened in 1938 and was the Schlitz Brewing Company’s tasting room. It closed in 2004 and the space was occupied by Italian restaurant Libiamo from 2005 to 2012, when it closed. The Brown Bottle will have a patio for outdoor seating when it reopens.
Grunau said he is working on deals with three other prospective tenants that would lease an additional 20,000 square feet of space at Schlitz Park. If those deals come together, the vacancy rate at the 1.2 million-square-foot complex would dip to 10 percent.
All of the new and expanded tenants could bring nearly 800 additional workers to Schlitz Park this year, Grunau said. About 5,000 people will work at Schlitz Park by the end of this year.
“(The new employees that have moved in to Schlitz Park) are all exciting people in financial services, software and publishing,” Grunau said. “These are not call center jobs.”
As the existing buildings at Schlitz Park finally fill up, Grunau could eventually add additional buildings to the complex. The only remaining building that could be redeveloped on the complex is a former power plant building.
“There’s room (for additional buildings),” Grunau said.
