The group that owns the Schlitz Park office complex near downtown Milwaukee is closing in on a deal to sell it, according to Gary Grunau, who leads the group.
Grunau and members of the Sampson family bought the former Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. complex in 1983 and converted it into an office complex.
The 32-acre office park, located between the Milwaukee River to the east, Pleasant Street to the north, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to the west and Cherry Street to the north, includes five office buildings, three parking structures and a chilled water plant. The buildings comprise a total of 774,256 square feet of office space that as of August was collectively 98 percent leased to 39 tenants totaling 3,500 employees.
The complex was listed for sale earlier this year.
“We’ve had a lot of activity,” Grunau said. “We have not sold it, nothing has been finalized. (But) we are close to doing that.”
A “combination of national firms” plans to purchase the complex, Grunau said. He declined to name the firms.
“It’s a very good combination,” Grunau said. “It’s a combination of young, aggressive national firms. It’s going to springboard Schlitz (Park).”
The Brewery Works Inc., the name of Grunau’s group that owns Schlitz Park, will be before the city’s Redevelopment Authority on Thursday seeking a request to change the lease for the ManpowerGroup headquarters parking structure to the new ownership group for Schlitz Park. The ManpowerGroup headquarters was developed by Grunau’s group, but was sold separately last year for $66.5 million to Chicago-based real estate investment firm Bentall Kennedy and Warba Bank, a Kuwaiti public shareholding company.
The parking structure attached to the ManpowerGroup headquarters building via skywalk was not part of that deal. It is owned by the city and leased by The Brewery Works.
The deal to sell Schlitz Park could close in January, Grunau said.
