Health Care Firm Taking Over Top of 735 Building
Fast-growing company will occupy top two floors of historic bank building.
City Center at 735. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
A fast-growing health care firm is taking over the top of one of the city’s historic office buildings.
Zizzl Health will relocate its headquarters to the 15th and 16th floors of CityCenter at 735, the historic office building at 735 N. Water St.
The company will lease 41,094 square feet across the building’s top two floors, substantially expanding from its current office in the Pritzlaff Building. Zizzl expects to complete the move in August.
“Zizzl Health has grown quickly because employers and brokers are looking for a better way to approach health benefits,” said founder and CEO Ray Seaver in a statement. “This move gives our team the space to keep growing while staying rooted in downtown Milwaukee, a city we are proud to call home.”
The company provides technology and support for Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, commonly known as ICHRAs. The arrangements allow employers to provide workers with money to purchase their own individual health insurance plans rather than enrolling them in a traditional group plan.
Zizzl said the larger office will provide additional space to expand its workforce and invest in the technology and customer support behind its platform. The privately held company works with employers and insurance brokers across the country.
The move fills space previously occupied by WageWorks, another employee benefits company.
WageWorks announced in 2017 that it would relocate more than 150 employees from Mequon to the top of the building. The company was subsequently acquired by HealthEquity in 2019.
An occupancy permit indicates the two floors have been vacant for at least the past 12 months.
CityCenter at 735 was sold in 2024 as part of a three-property transaction involving the office tower, an adjoining building occupied by a fitness club and a parking garage across N. Water Street.
An affiliate of Illinois-based E.A. Staples & Associates purchased the complex for $17.4 million from Compass Properties, which had owned it since 2002. The price was more than $10 million below the property’s approximately $28.1 million assessed value at the time.
The sale also included the adjoining building at 731 N. Water St., home to the former Gold’s Gym, and a parking structure across the street. Gold’s Gym was subsequently rebranded as East Bank Athletic and Social.
The 16-story office tower was constructed in 1912 as the First Wisconsin National Bank Building. It was designed by D.H. Burnham and Co., the Chicago architecture firm associated with famed architect Daniel Burnham.
Compass completed a substantial renovation and rebranded the complex as CityCenter at 735 in 2011.
Zizzl’s move also has a multigenerational connection to the building.
Company vice president of strategy Mike Broomfield said he will be the third generation of his family to work there. His grandfather worked in the building from 1965 to 1973, while his mother worked there during the 1990s.
“There is something pretty special about helping Zizzl Health enter this next stage in a building that has been part of my family’s story, too,” said Broomfield. “It feels full circle. We are stepping into a space with real Milwaukee history, and we get to make it part of Zizzl Health’s future.”
Elm Grove-based commercial real estate firm Luther Group represented Zizzl in securing the lease.
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