Immigration Office Moving To 310W Building

310 W. Wisconsin Ave. Photo courtesy of Colliers International.

The Milwaukee office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency will relocate from its longtime home at the north end of Downtown to the big blue 310W building on W. Wisconsin Avenue.

The move comes as the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) prepares to redevelop the agency’s current home, a three-story building at 310 E. Knapp St., into the first dedicated building for its civil engineering, architectural engineering and construction management programs.

USCIS, a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is moving to the eighth floor of the building previously known as The Blue and Reuss Federal Plaza. According to a building permit, USCIS will occupy approximately 20,000 square feet of space.

The agency, created in 2003, performs many key immigration functions, including processing applications for naturalization or asylum, overseeing green card and visa petitions and managing immigrant benefits.

New York-based Time Equities acquired the 14-story, 578,000-square-foot complex at 310 W. Wisconsin Ave. in 2017 for $19.5 million and, in 2019, completed a renovation effort estimated to cost more than $10 million.

A series of state and federal agencies occupied the complex after it was completed in 1983, but a security push following the 9/11 attack caused a shift to facilities that had more security systems. By 2019 the building’s occupancy rate was reported at only 36%.

Office leasing for 310W is currently managed by CBRE. Leasing information promotes the complex, two 14-story towers attached by a central atrium, as a “Class A experience at a Class B price point.”

USCIS’s current home is a 59,429-square-foot building that was constructed in 2001 on the edge of the Park East corridor. Real estate developer and MSOE regent Kendall Breunig, who leads Sunset Investors, bought the facility in 2021 for $4.75 million.

The redeveloped facility will be known as the Kendall Breunig Center for the Built Environment. Breunig graduated from MSOE in 1979 with a degree architectural and building construction engineering technology and was given an honorary doctorate in 2017.

According to state real estate transfer records, Breunig sold the property to MSOE for the steeply discounted price of $1.09 million in March.

At the time of the sale, USCIS did not respond to a request for comment on its future location. But building permits on file with the city indicate the decision was already made.

In January, permit requests were filed for the 800W suite at the 310W complex. A commercial alteration permit gives the job cost as $1.3 million with Continuum Architects + Planners serving as the architect of record. KVG Building Corporation is listed as the general contractor.

310W Renderings

310 E. Knapp St. Photos