New Developer Attempting Sentinel Building Redevelopment
A conversion to apartments? Office building is effectively empty.
The Sentinel Building. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
A downtown office building could be converted to apartments under a new plan from a Florida-based developer.
MAQ Group is seeking to redevelop the largely vacant Sentinel Building, 225 E. Mason St.
It’s the second time in four years a developer has sought to convert the 10-story office building into apartments.
The building’s height hides the fact that it’s a small structure by downtown standards. The building has 30,848 square feet of space according to city assessment records. A single floor in the 25-story BMO Tower to the north is more than 25,000 square feet.
A commercial alteration permit request indicates MAQ, which lists Muhammad Shaker as its registered agent, is working with Brookfield-based architecture firm Patera on the plan. A specific unit count is not listed.
Patera also worked with Adam Gollatz on a 2021 plan to redevelop the building into 33 apartments. But those plans didn’t advance, and Gollatz’s Mason Street Ventures transferred the building back to prior owner Doug Young.
Young sold the building through an auction to MAQ in 2023 for $1.2 million.
Constructed in 1892 and home to the namesake newspaper until 1930, the building was 70% vacant when Gollatz’s Mason Street Ventures LLC acquired it for $2.1 million in February 2021 as part of a land contract.
At the time of the auction, it was listed as 97% vacant.
The Romanesque Revival-style building was designed by architect Walter A. Holbrook. It was part of what was then known as Newspaper Row, a collection of publishers located on E. Mason St. Starting in the 1960s it was known as the Loewi Building, when the similarly-named financial firm occupied every floor and eventually purchased the building.
It changed hands a number of times after Loewi’s ownership and was eventually purchased by Milwaukee-based investor Max Dermond. He sold it to Young’s Sentinel Suites in 2018 for $1.53 million when it was reportedly 50% vacant.
There are several office-to-apartment conversions proposed in Downtown, with The Sentinel Building representing the smallest proposal. A block southwest, the 35-story, 465,000-square-foot 100 East tower is to be converted to approximately 350 apartments.
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You’d think the Journal Sentinel might be interested in moving back in, now that they’ve become so much smaller. The building is part of their legacy.
Great news! 30 or so new apartments in an empty building sounds good to me!
I was kind of hoping his article was about the old M&I building. Irgens had great plans for commercial but COVID and remote working put an end to that. They floated the idea of 231 apartments there back in 2021 but I guess they’re still figuring things out.
Point is, current and potential residential development in this area could have a tremendous impact on creating a neighborhood in and around Market Square:
~33 units at The Sentinel Building (planned)
384 units at 100 East (underway)
129 units at 740 North Plankinton (underway)
~231 units at 770 North Water, old M&I (possible?)
[~250-750 units on parking lots directly west of the river, before MLK (my dream!]
That’s upward of 1,000 new residential units in the area. 100 East and 770 N Water had talked about most units being studios and one bedrooms. Hopefully, with the tax credits available, there will be emphasis on affordable and even below market rate (BMR) units.
Let’s say the average number of occupants at full occupancy is 1.5 occupants and you have (obviously) another 1,500 neighbors walking around demanding goods, services, third spaces, and entertainment, and other amenities. Who knows, some of them might actually choose to use the Riverwalk!