Demolition Underway On Walker’s Point Seed Warehouse

Courteen Seed demolition. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

An 11-story, 150,000-square-foot building once described as “one of the strongest and heaviest concrete structures in the country” will soon be no more.

Demolition work is underway on the wedge-shaped Courteen Seed Company warehouse at 222 W. Freshwater Way.

New Berlin Grading is razing the building on behalf of a company affiliated with Rite-Hite Holding Corporation, which has its new corporate headquarters to the west. A raze permit lists the estimated cost at $1.5 million.

“[The company] looked at multiple options to renovate and/or repurpose the building, but after many years of vacancy, expert engineering studies report that the building structure has deteriorated beyond repair,” said a spokesperson for SixSibs Capital in a statement in September. “Ownership intends to save or recycle materials and objects found within the building for future use. Development plans for the property are in the early stages with nothing definitive to share at this time.”

SixSibs is affiliated with the White family, which, through three generations, has founded and greatly expanded Rite-Hite Holding Corporation.

Workers could be observed this week tossing large amounts of wood out of the west-facing windows of the structure.

Under prior ownership groups, housing-focused redevelopment proposals for the structure emerged in 2006 and 2014, but did not proceed.

In the past year, entities affiliated with SixSibs have acquired the Courteen building, the Global Water Center office building to the south and a parking lot, 310 W. Freshwater Way, that divides the Courteen building from the Rite-Hite complex. The parking lot and Courteen building were acquired from entities affiliated with Peter Moede, who developed The Tannery complex west of the business park and owned part of the business park property sold to Rite Hite. The 2.6-acre parking lot property was acquired for $1.05 million. A purchase price was not immediately available for the Courteen property.

Demolition of the Courteen building will create a rectangular, three-acre site between W. Seeboth Street and W. Freshwater Way.

A report from Pierce Engineers documents the condition of the structure. “In general, the building is not in acceptable condition both externally and internally. The building has serious issues in the form of severe concrete spall, cracks, exposed reinforcing with corrosion, brick disintegration, and loss,” says the report, submitted with the raze permit request.

A “recommended repair work” section suggests replacing the roof, rebuilding a portion of the brick facade, repairing or replacing the concrete floors and tuck pointing and replacing steel lintels. “This approach could be time consuming, expensive and may be cost prohibitive to repurposing the building,” says Pierce about replacing concrete flooring.

Developers familiar with the property have told Urban Milwaukee its low floor heights pose an additional challenge for redevelopment.

The building’s flatiron shape reflects the neighborhood’s former anchor tenant: a large railyard. The west side of the building was angled to allow it to fit next to a Milwaukee Road freight yard, through which train cars loaded with Courteen’s seed traversed. Two three-story grain bins are hidden within the structure.

Courteen was founded in 1892 and shuttered in the 1960s. The Thatcher family, led by real estate developer Herbert Thatcher, acquired the building for property in 1965 and publicly announced a development plan in 2006. The family, following Herbert’s 2013 passing, sold it to Moede in 2015 for $200,000.

Photos

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Pre-Demolition Photos