Local Investor Buys Ma Baensch Building

A Riverwest icon is now in the hands of new owners.

An investment group led by Nathan Bernstein purchased the Ma Baensch building at 1025 E. Locust St. The pickled herring company, as of 2021, uses a Minnesota co-packer to make its products, rendering the 9,651-square-foot building and 0.30-acre property surplus.

Bernstein’s Bender-McNamara LLC paid $625,000 on Friday for the property according to Wisconsin real estate transfer records. It was listed last month with Bill and Joe Langhoff of Colliers International for $539,000.

It’s the second notable property Bernstein has purchased in the past year. Last summer, Bernstein also acquired the two-story building at 1950-1956 N. Bartlett Ave. that was built by Miller Brewing Company in 1909 as an investment property.

“Both are iconic east side properties and we are looking at these as long-term investments,” said Bernstein in an email to Urban Milwaukee. “Our goal is to update both properties while maintaining their historical patinas and personalities and identifying end users that can be the highest and best use for the neighborhood and our neighbors.”

Bernstein’s group acquired the pickled herring plant from a limited liability company owned by Kim Wall, the current owner of the company. Ma Baensch was founded in 1932 by Lena “Ma” Baensch. It moved to the Riverwest building in 1946. Wall purchased the business and property in 1999 and continues to operate the former. Co-packers have supported the business since 2004, which Wall attributes to a surge in demand.

“The same delicious herring that [our customers] have come to expect is still being offered in the same packaging, using the same recipes and herring, at our same grocery store partners’ locations,” said Wall in a statement announcing the listing. The herring is sourced from Norway.

As currently configured the Ma Basench property has 15 parking spaces. A new roof and other updates were made to the building starting in 2017. The Cudahy Brothers Company (Patrick Cudahy) acquired the property in 1914 from the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company and erected the building as a meat storage facility.

The Miller-built structure on Bartlett Ave. that Bernstein’s group acquired for $565,000 last July was designed similarly to the brewery’s many tied houses, but never housed a tavern. City records indicate it is currently divided into three apartments, with the first-floor one still housing the ice cream bar and soda fountain from when it was a drug store.

Bernstein is the director of commercial real estate for Joseph Property Development, but made the purchases as part of an outside group. He said more definitive plans on the two properties would likely be available later this summer.

Carole Wehner was Bernstein’s group’s broker on the Ma Baensch acquisition.

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