CBRE Moving Office To BMO Tower

One of Milwaukee’s leading real estate brokerages is on the move.

CBRE is poised to relocate from its longtime home in the US Bank Center to the 18th floor of BMO Tower, 790 N. Water St.

A building permit filed with the Department of Neighborhood Services shows that the firm is leasing 12,775 square feet of space overlooking Milwaukee City Hall, N. Water St. and E. Wells St. An L-shaped floor plan depicts several meeting spaces and conference rooms along the outer floor-to-ceiling windows with small offices set towards the center of the floor.

The Dallas-based firm’s Milwaukee office provides brokerage services for office, retail and industrial properties as well as property management. In 2006, CBRE acquired Polacheck Co., one of Milwaukee’s longest-running brokerages and once the city’s largest. Between its Milwaukee, Brookfield and Madison offices, CBRE reports more than 90 employees. The publicly-traded company, formerly known as Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm based on 2021 revenue of $27.8 billion.

Locally, the company’s brokers recently represented Fiserv in the Brookfield company’s downtown relocation. They also represented Silvercrest Asset Management Group in leasing 11,194 square feet on the 22nd floor of the 25-story BMO Tower. The latter deal was announced in December and was the latest leasing announcement for the office tower. The Milwaukee office is led by Emmy Murphy.

CBRE would join anchor tenants BMO Harris Bank and Michael Best & Friedrich, as well as Watercrest, Kahler Slater, B.C. Ziegler & Company, Heartland Advisors and Andrus Intellectual Property Law. Fiddleheads Coffee Roasters operates a cafe along N. Water St. on the first floor, next to BMO’s flagship bank branch at N. Water St. and E. Wells St. A fertility clinic, Kindbody, is expected to open this year in a 7,500-square-foot retail space along N. Broadway.

Developed by Irgens, the 328-foot-tall building opened in phases starting in fall 2020. Irgens, according to its website, represents itself on leasing in the tower. Assessed for $80.5 million, it is one of the 10 most valuable properties in the city.

Representatives of Irgens and CBRE did not respond to a request for comment.

The permit request indicates the CBRE Design Collective is leading the space’s design. Chicago-based Syska Hennessy Group is serving as a project consultant. The building has 25,849 square foot floor plates, with Irgens’ floor plans depicting the firm as currently the only tenant on the floor.

CBRE’s Milwaukee office is currently located on the 31st floor of the US Bank Center, the state’s tallest building. Polachek helped assemble the land for its development and moved to the tower in 1975, a year after it opened.

BMO Tower was developed on the site of a multi-level parking structure originally built by M&I Bank in the 1960s. The bank was acquired by BMO in 2010. The former M&I building to the south, now known as 770 North, could house up to 231 apartments, but Irgens has had no public activity on the proposal in the past year.

April 2020 BMO Tower Photos