An affiliate of Northwoods Software Development Inc. recently purchased the 50,000-square-foot office building that it occupies in Shorewood for $2 million, according to state records. The building was sold by an investors group that includes James T. Barry III, president of Cassidy Turley Barry.
The firm moved to the building in 2013 after operating for seven years at 4600 W. Schroeder Dr. in Brown Deer.
“We were leasing (space in the Shorewood building) as we were negotiating the purchase,” said Northwoods Software President Patrick Bieser.
Northwoods received a $200,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and a $200,000 loan from the Village of Shorewood to make improvements to the four-story building, which has been vacant since 2011 when Catholic Family Life Insurance moved out after its merger with Catholic Knights, forming Catholic Financial Life.
Northwoods currently occupies the lower two floors of the building and plans to make improvements to the upper two floors, and then will lease them out, Bieser said. The firm could eventually grow into those floors in the future.
Northwoods has 34 employees and hopes to double its staff over the “next several years,” Bieser said.
The company prefers the Shorewood location to its prior home in Brown Deer, Bieser said.
“It’s nice to be cloer to downtown (Milwaukee),” he said. “It’s nice to be close to the restaurants, shops and conveniences of Shorewood.”
