Buried Power Line Subject of Lawsuit Around New Office Building

350 S. Water St. Renderig by Korb Architecture.

A complicated development site in Milwaukee’s Harbor District has become the subject of a lawsuit, with the developer of an $11 million office building alleging that We Energies is illegally withholding electrical service to obtain permanent rights to its property.

Pontis LLC, an affiliate of the Moede family, filed suit against Wisconsin Electric Power Co., We Energies’ electric subsidiary, on Sept. 25 in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit alleges that We Energies is attempting to force the developer to grant a permanent easement for an underground electrical duct system that crosses the property at 350 S. Water St., despite the utility not having a legal right to maintain the infrastructure on the site.

The underground system, which extends beneath the Milwaukee River, serves customers in the Historic Third Ward, not the proposed office building.

We Energies denies the allegations.

“We are reviewing the filing. We strongly deny the claims and will respond through the court process as appropriate,” said a spokesperson.

The dispute centers on an easement dating back to 1911. According to the lawsuit, We Energies maintains that the easement gives it the right to operate the electrical infrastructure beneath the development site.

But Pontis alleges that the easement applies to a city-owned alley approximately 100 feet from the property. The developer argues the utility has failed to produce documentation establishing its legal right to maintain the equipment at 350 S. Water St.

The developer says it has attempted to resolve the dispute for approximately 18 months, including offering to accommodate replacement infrastructure if the utility paid for the work, assumed maintenance responsibilities and compensated Pontis for the permanent property rights.

The lawsuit alleges that We Energies instead sought to shift some relocation costs and infrastructure ownership to the developer.

Pontis submitted formal applications for electrical service in November 2025. But the utility’s service team stopped discussing the applications in May 2026 while awaiting an agreement on the disputed easement, according to the complaint.

The developer alleges that the utility is improperly tying service for the new building to a separate underground system that does not serve it.

Pontis also says it has spent substantial time and money redesigning the proposed building’s foundation to accommodate both the existing infrastructure and a potential replacement location. The changes include additional structural piles, pile caps and grade beams.

The developer is asking the court to declare that We Energies has no legal right to maintain the underground system on the property, order its removal and award damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

The lawsuit adds another complication to a project already facing an unusually constrained development site.

The Moede family is planning a boutique office building that would house its own operations on one floor, with additional space leased to other tenants. The project, designed by Korb Architecture, would include indoor parking, office space and rooftop amenities overlooking the Milwaukee River.

The family, which operates Center Pointe Yacht Services and previously redeveloped The Tannery and River Place Lofts, has extensive real estate holdings in the surrounding area.

The 0.33-acre property is bordered by a historic, windowless grain elevator to the north and a narrow, railroad-owned parcel to the south. The site measures just 41 feet wide along the river.

In addition to the disputed We Energies infrastructure, the property is encumbered by a 20-foot-deep easement held by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. An adjacent railroad trestle and the landing for the Third Ward Swing Bridge further complicate construction.

“This site is incredibly complicated and encumbered by lots of utilities and a railroad trestle,” said city riverwalk project manager Alyssa Remington during a March meeting of the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee.

“There is a lot that we have been working around to make this work,” said project architect Ali Kopyt during an earlier city review.

The project also includes a publicly funded segment of Milwaukee’s riverwalk that initially would not be open to the public.

The city plans to use tax incremental financing to help fund the riverwalk and dockwall construction. As proposed in March, the public contribution was approximately $350,000.

The riverwalk segment would be only 29 feet wide because of the neighboring railroad property. There is insufficient room for an accessway from S. Water Street, and the new segment would not connect to any existing publicly accessible riverwalk.

Instead, access would initially be limited to building occupants, with public access becoming available when a neighboring property is redeveloped.

The City Plan Commission unanimously endorsed the riverwalk design in January, granting a temporary exception to the city’s longstanding requirement that new riverwalk segments be publicly accessible.

“[It] would be the first proposal in 33 years where public access will not be provided when the segment is constructed,” said Department of City Development planning manager Tanya Fonseca at the January hearing.

RACM subsequently endorsed a financing plan that would support the riverwalk and other infrastructure projects in the surrounding area.

The project also received a dimensional variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals in October 2025.

An investment group affiliated with the Moedes, Haven Funds LLC, acquired the property for $450,000 in 2019. It transferred the site to Pontis in May 2025.

Renderings

Current Site

350 S. Water St in 2019. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The lawsuit was first reported by Addison Lathers.

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