Century City’s First New Building is Fully Leased

The first new industrial building constructed in Milwaukee’s Century City business park reached an important milestone this month: it’s fully leased.

An affiliate of Good City Brewing bought the Century City 1 warehouse in 2018 for $867,858. The 53,400-square-foot building, which opened in 2016, was vacant at the time and sold at a discount by a partnership of General Capital Group and the City of Milwaukee.

It now has five tenants.

Good City Brewing, which has storage and office space in the building, is joined by Craft Beverage Warehouse, Planet to Plate‘s Hundred Acre urban farm, Klein-Dickert Glass and B83 Testing and Engineering.

“When we purchased the building a couple of years ago, we knew it would be a longer-term project. We are thrilled that the building is now fully leased and we remain excited and committed to the future of Century City,” said Good City’s Dan Katt, who leads the investment group that purchased the property, 3945 N. 31st St.

The one-story building anchors the northern edge of the business park at W. Capitol Dr.

“It is exciting to see investment taking place at Century City, and in other parts of the surrounding neighborhood,” said area alderman Khalif Rainey in a statement. “As investment grows, we are confident job growth and opportunity will follow.”

“The neighborhood is well connected to workforce and transportation, and forward-thinking companies are finding opportunities at Century City,” said Mayor Tom Barrett.

The announcement is a major milestone for the business park. Once home to Tower Automotive and more than 5,000 jobs, the city completed site preparation work on the 84-acre business park in 2014. But the city has struggled to attract permanent employers to the area. Talgo‘s lease of a former Tower plant, until the lease-up news, was the leading success story. A plan to locate a new meat processing plant for Strauss Brands in the business park ultimately drew opposition from Rainey, who previously supported the proposal.

But Katt expressed an optimistic view of the area’s future. Katt, a former real estate developer, leads Good City Brewing with business partner David Dupee.

“Once the pandemic started to subside in early 2021, the interest level for the space sky-rocketed and the building filled very quickly. There is much more demand for modern industrial space in this part of the city than there is supply,” said Katt. The investment group marketed the building itself.

“We are continuing to have conversations with companies interested in relocating or adding operations at Century City,” said Katt. “We are actively exploring financing opportunities for future development, and really think it is only a matter of time before the next shovel is in the ground.”

Century City 1 Photos