A vestige of Milwaukee’s brewing history is under new ownership. And somehow it’s connected to a California almond orchard and an heir to the Schlitz fortune.

The Blatz Wash House, an office building created from one of the remaining Blatz Brewing buildings, was sold for $4 million to a California-based investment group. The group, Grand Central Farms, includes California and Wisconsin investors who recently sold a California orchard and are seeking to defer capital gains taxes.

“What they’re drawn to is the Cream City brick, creative office type that this asset is,” said Colliers International vice president Matt Fahey to Sean Ryan in early September. The three-story, 45,392-square-foot building was first built in 1891.

The sale comes as a longtime tenant’s leasing is expiring. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is relocating its offices to its Bradley Symphony Center in Westown. The relocation, coupled with existing vacancies, will leave 28,000 square feet of space available in the building, 1101 N. Market St. Remaining tenants include Rent College Pads, Securus Data Centers and Data Chart Systems according to a Colliers listing document. The structure is located at the western edge of the former Blatz campus, near N. Water St. Much of the former campus is now occupied by the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

In an ironic twist, the largest donor to the symphony project is the same individual who created the Wash House office space.

The structure was first redeveloped in 1985 by a partnership led by architect and philanthropist David Uihlein, who can trace his family’s fortunes to one-time Blatz competitor Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. According to a newspaper account of the ribbon cutting, then-mayor Henry Maier publicly pushed for the future Bradley Center to be located Downtown. Largely funded as a gift from Uihlein’s mother Jane Bradley Pettit, the preferred site at the time was adjacent to County Stadium (where American Family Field stands today). But city officials won out and the arena was constructed in Westown.

Uihlein, in 1986, was planning a new, companion building for the Wash House immediately to its north. But those historically-styled plans never advanced to construction, with the site sitting largely vacant until what is now known as Grohmann Tower was constructed in 2008.

Samaritan Health Plan, later part of Aurora Health, was the initial anchor tenant in the Wash House office building. The building’s name refers to its one-time use as a place to wash kegs, bottles and other brewing equipment.

The structure was renovated in 2013. It explains 35 underground parking spaces and approximately a dozen surface spaces.

The property was sold by long-time owner Franklin-based SSG Property Holdings. The property is assessed for $4.47 million.

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Weekly Recap

Downer Avenue Townhomes Sit Nearly Finished

Four new townhomes sit in a nearly finished state at the northern end of the Downer Avenue commercial district. Dubbed the Park Place Townhomes, the condominium units at 2604 E. Park Pl. come in two configurations.

The 1,711-square-foot, three-story units in the middle of the building were listed for $675,000 each earlier this year. They have a two-bedroom, three-bathroom layout.

The 1,160-square-foot, two-story units at each end of the building were listed for $550,000. They have a two-bedroom, two-bathroom layout.

A private, two-car garage, accessible via N. Downer Ave., is located beneath each unit and

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Milwaukee Bucks Creating Deer District Business Improvement District

The Milwaukee Bucks are creating a new quasi-governmental district to levy an additional property tax upon themselves and businesses around the arena to fund events and other programming.

The proposed Deer District Business Improvement District #53 would create a nonprofit entity with a $175,000 annual budget. The entity would have a goal of establishing the district as a “365-day destination” and “premiere location for sports and entertainment.”

“It really encompasses all 30 acres of the Deer District,” said Bucks vice president Michael Belot to members of the City Plan Commission on Monday evening.

Business improvement districts are commonly used to unite disparate property owners along commercial corridors. But in the case of the Deer District BID, all of the properties in the proposed district are currently owned by entities affiliated with the Bucks.

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Ship-Loading Equipment Makes 1,500-Mile Trip To Port Milwaukee

An essential piece of the largest Milwaukee port investment in 60 years floated into town in recent weeks.

The “ship loader,” which will be used at DeLong Company‘s new agricultural maritime export facility, was delivered and is now being installed along Milwaukee’s inner harbor. When complete, the large, overhead system will be used to load up to 40,000 bushels (1,100 metric tons) per hour onto either barges or ships.

The American-made equipment took a less common route to Milwaukee. It floated up the Mississippi River from New Orleans, then went upstream on the Illinois River before entering the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and ultimately into Lake Michigan.

The structure it will be attached to, the Agricultural Maritime Export Facility (AMEF), is a first-of-its-kind facility for the Great Lakes. The $40 million complex is being developed as a public-private partnership between the city and Delong, with financial support from the state and federal governments. It will be used to ship an ethanol byproduct to other corners of the world for use as animal feed.

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Board Approves Coggs Building Funding

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors approved approximately $32.3 million in funds for a new county building to replace the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center.

The funds will go toward a $42.2 million human services building that will retain the Coggs name. Initial plans call for a 60,000-square-foot building on the footprint of the existing Coggs site, on W. Cherry St. between N. 13th St. and N. 12th St. The rest of the funding will come from the county’s capital budget. $5.2 million was already approved for the project in the 2022 budget.

The current project timeline would have construction begin in 2023 and finish in 2024. The county is undertaking the project with a “construction management at risk type project delivery,” said Peter Nilles, director of Facilities Planning & Development, “Which means that we will be retaining a construction manager earlier in the process… So we hope to retain a construction manager in the next month or so.”

Some preliminary site plans and designs for the new facility show that the county would have to raze the current Coggs Building, 1220 W. Vliet, to create space for parking. This led some to voice concern that the county was not making the right decision about the future of the Coggs building, and question some of the cost estimates and even the viability of the county constructing a new human services building versus renting office space somewhere in Downtown.

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Property Values See Record Growth in 2022

Wisconsin property values saw a record increase in 2022, coming after a continued shortage of homes and new real estate demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum found total property values in the state grew by 13.8 percent, overwhelmingly surpassing the previous record increase of 9.6 percent in 2006. The nonpartisan research group’s analysis looks at data from the state Department of Revenue on equalized property values as of Jan. 1 dating back to 1985.

Research director Jason Stein said a variety of factors contributed to the record growth from 2021 to 2022. With lower interest rates caused by the pandemic, many people bought homes in 2021. Inflation also drove up the price of property just like many other commodities.

But Stein said property values have also increased because of the limited supply of homes available in the last decade. He said home building across the United States slowed significantly after the housing market crash of 2007 and 2008, and the industry has been working to catch up ever since.

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Home Heating Bills Could Rise By 17%

Wisconsin residents will likely pay hundreds more to heat their home this winter, a trend that has increased for the second year in a row. It’s likely to impact low-income families across the state and nation, leading to an increased demand for energy assistance programs.

Homeowners and renters nationwide are expected to see a 17.2 percent increase in their heat bill this winter compared to last, according to an estimate from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, or NEADA. A September report from that association found a 35 percent increase in estimated winter heating costs from the 2020-2021 winter heating season to the 2022-2023 season.

The increase will “put millions of lower income families at risk of falling behind on their energy bills and having no choice but to make difficult decisions between paying for food, medicine and rent,” according to Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA.

A spokesperson for WEC Energy Group, which serves more than 4.6 million customers across the Midwest, said the typical Wisconsin customer will likely pay around $20 to $30 more per month this winter season.

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Forensic Science Center Gains Funding

Gov. Tony Evers has announced plans to provide $20 million to Milwaukee County for a new Forensic Science Center to be located on the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center campus.

This funding will help advance what is actually a joint $226 million project between the county and the state, to build a three-story, 200,000-square-foot building, called the Center for Forensic Science and Protective Medicine, that will house the county’s Office of the Medical Examiner and Office of Emergency Management and the state’s Department of Justice Milwaukee Crime Lab.

“Violence is never the answer and crime has no place in our communities. Period,” Evers said in a statement announcing the funding. “That’s why I have continued to invest in communities all across Wisconsin, and this $20 million for Milwaukee County will bolster local and regional efforts to improve public safety through the latest advances in research and technology.”

The $20 million announced by Evers builds on another major piece of funding, which has been recommended but not yet authorized. That is another $20 million in funding taken from the county’s allocation of federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

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Deer District Concert Venue Wins First Approval, Despite Objections

The proposal from Frank Productions, Live Nation and the Milwaukee Bucks to develop a new concert venue across from Fiserv Forum gained its first public approval Monday, but not before a substantial number of community members affiliated with other music venues testified in opposition.

Focused on live music acts with primarily standing crowds, the complex would have halls with capacities of 800 and 4,000 people. Madison-based Frank Productions would own and operate the facility through its FPC Live subsidiary, a partnership of Frank and the nation’s largest concert promoter and ticketing company Live Nation.

Described as a $50 million project, it would be built on the corner of N. Vel R. Phillips Ave. and W. Highland Ave. on a vacant lot once occupied by the Bradley Center.

A zoning change is necessary to enable any development on the former Bradley Center site as part of the 2016 arena zoning agreement. With two abstentions and two votes in opposition, the City Plan Commission narrowly recommended the Common Council approve the change. The council’s zoning committee will next host a formal public hearing, before the full council will vote on whether to approve the project. The proposal would also need council approval for a liquor license. Area alderman Robert Bauman did not speak at Monday’s hearing.

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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.

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