Siren manufacturer buys industrial building for $1.78 million

Milwaukee-based American Signal Corp., which manufactures warning sirens, plans to move its operations to a larger building in the city.
The company’s owner, president and chief executive officer Dale Moeller, recently purchased a 39,000-square-foot building at 8600 W. Bradley Road, Milwaukee, from Cornerstone East LLC for $1,774,500. The building is located in the Bradley Woods Business Park. The sale of the building was brokered by Kevin Barry and Kurt Van Dyke of Milwaukee-based Colliers Barry.
American Signal recently received a $717,000 SBA-backed loan from Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp.
Cornerstone East LLC consists of Ton Bentley and other investors. The building was formerly used by The Bentley Co., a construction firm that ceased operations last year.
The building has most recently been leased to Imagemark Inc., a promotional products and employee uniform company, which is going out of business. Imagemark had 95 employees a year and a half ago, but was hurt badly during the Great Recession when major corporations stopped buying promotional products.
American Signal Corp. will move its operations from its current location in 22,000 square feet of space at 4801 W. Woolworth Ave., Milwaukee, which is about 4.5 miles northwest of the Bradley Road building.
American Signal is growing and needs a larger space, Moeller said. The company’s revenues increased 41 percent last year and are projected to increase 25 percent this year, he said. The company has 34 employees and plans to add some more, he said.
Natural disasters around the world, such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, come with a silver lining: they create more interest and demand for emergency sires, which results in more business for American Signal.
“It seems like every time somebody else has a bad day, we have a good day,” Moeller said.
Moeller also said he prefers to own a facility rather than lease it, and the Bradley Woods area is a nicer neighborhood than his company’s current location, near North 47th Street and West Mill Road.
For more information about American Signal Corp., read the BizTimes Milwaukee Made in Milwaukee feature about the firm from 2007.