Ugly Building: Downtown Milwaukee mail processing facility

The former owner of the downtown Milwaukee U.S. Postal Service facility has thrown out its lofty vision for redeveloping the property with the rest of the junk mail.

The 1.1 million-square-foot building at 341 W. St. Paul Ave. is indeed a major center of jobs but takes up prime Milwaukee real estate. It suffers from deferred maintenance, which shows from the outside. It does, however, offer picturesque river views – which are only able to be enjoyed by its fleet of mail trucks.

Chicago-based R2 Cos. bought the building in 2015 but later failed in a lawsuit to evict the postal service over maintenance issues. R2 threw in the towel and sold the property this fall to Postal Realty Trust Inc., an investment company that owns properties leased to the USPS.