ABC Supply Opening Northwest Side Warehouse

Beloit-based ABC Supply Co. Inc. is planning to open a distribution facility on the far northwest side of Milwaukee, near Interstate 41 and the city’s border with Menomonee Falls.

“This is going to be our first ABC Supply in the city of Milwaukee,” said ABC’s real estate asset manager Don Jeziorski to members of the City Plan Commission Monday afternoon. He said the facility would initially have 10 to 15 employees, with planned growth to 25 to 30 workers.

The privately-held roofing supply company is owned by billionaire Diane Hendricks and reports, as of 2020, having more than 15,000 employees, almost 800 locations and more than $12 billion in annual sales. Its current Milwaukee-area locations include Hartland, Jackson, West Allis and West Milwaukee.

The company would lease a 65,357-square-foot building at 11200 W. Heather Ave. The property is located southwest of the intersection of N. 107th St. and W. Brown Deer Rd. in the Granville Business Park.

The one-story industrial facility was constructed in 1999. It was most recently leased to Elk Grove, IL-based FPM Heat Treating, which laid off its 27 Milwaukee employees and shuttered the plant in early 2020.

“It was leased to a heat treating company that destroyed it,” said attorney George Erwin on Monday. That included damaging the HVAC and electrical systems as well as leaving the walls “caked in substances that were a hazard.”

Jeziorski said ABC and the unidentified building owner would invest approximately $1.5 million in overhauling the facility. He said ABC would have a 15-year lease on the 5.29-acre property.

Though neither Jeziorski nor Erwin told the commission who the landlord is, ABC should be guaranteed to have friendly terms with the owner.

The property is owned by an affiliate of Hendricks Commercial Properties, the real estate firm owned by ABC chairwoman Diane Hendricks. Hendricks acquired the property for $3.95 million in 2013.

Hendricks co-founded ABC with her late husband Ken in 1982 and now has substantial real estate investments throughout the country. Forbes ranks Hendricks as America’s wealthiest “self-made woman” with a net worth of $12.2 billion.

ABC’s proposal needed City Plan Commission approval because its plans deviate from what’s allowed by right within the special zoning district that governs the business park. ABC would use the rear of the property for outdoor storage of shingles. The parcel to the north, 11201 W. Brown Deer Pl., is undeveloped and owned by an affiliate of Zilber Ltd., which developed the business park. Zilber and Kohl’s, which owns the property to the west for use as its photo studio, both sent letters in support of the deviation.

The commission unanimously endorsed the deviation after asking for the fencing to match that of other nearby properties.

Hendricks, as recently as June, was listing the property for sale for $4.3 million or for lease through Cushman & Wakefield | Boerke. But ABC Supply has sought to occupy the building since at least September 2021, based on testimony from Jeziorski and an occupancy permit request.

ABC’s project isn’t the only one underway in the area. Transwestern Development Company is planning to develop two speculative industrial buildings at N. 124th St. and W. Brown Deer Rd., just northwest of the Heather Avenue site.