SAINT FRANCIS, WIS. — JLL Capital Markets has brokered the $15.1 million sale of Whitnall Square in Saint Francis, just south of Milwaukee. Pick ’N Save anchors the 133,421-square-foot shopping center, which was constructed between 1989 and 1991. Other tenants include Petco, Planet Fitness, Harbor Freight Tools, Metro PCS, Dollar Tree, Subway, H&R Block, Bangkok House Restaurant, Hariport, Papa Murphy’s Pizza and P.T. Nails. The center is 96 percent leased. Amy Sands, Clinton Mitchell, Michael Nieder and Jaime Fink of JLL represented the seller, Newport Capital Partners, and procured the buyer, Savitar Realty Advisors.
Wisconsin
WISCONSIN — JLL Capital Markets has arranged the sale of a four-property medical office portfolio in Wisconsin totaling 111,827 square feet for an undisclosed price. The properties are located in Glendale, Oak Creek, Mt. Pleasant and Green Bay. The portfolio is 98 percent leased. Tenants include Children’s Wisconsin, Hospital Sisters Health System, Ascension and Advocate Aurora Health Care. Evan Kovac, Mindy Berman, Tim Joyce, Matt DiCesare, Trent Jemmett and Jamie Fink of JLL represented the seller, Chicago-based Stage Equity Partners. Big Sky Medical was the buyer.
It’s safe to say office space design has been transformed over the past two years in large part due to COVID-19 and the work-from-home experience. It has changed for now, the foreseeable future and maybe forever. Though many people are still working from home, others have returned to the office, even if only for a few days a week, and many of the office spaces are looking entirely different. While this may be happening in other markets, it is a trend we are seeing in the Milwaukee office market. The idea of the design and aesthetic of the office has changed. Current trends in office design are focusing on safety and comfort, while also creating a sense of home at the office. Tenants are being more thoughtful about their space layout and design. Instead of trying to fit as many people as possible into the space, tenants are occupying roughly the same size, or even slightly smaller spaces, but focusing on making those spaces more welcoming to help ease those workers coming back into the office, as well as recruiting new employees. Bring home into the office This design trend has the goal to provide comfort and safety at every …
Like much of the country, the Milwaukee industrial market flourished over the last 12 to 24 months and has continued to shatter records across the board. Tenant demand far exceeded supply, driving vacancy rates down and rental rates up. Pent-up capital chased deals at record numbers, compressing cap rates further in this sector. And new construction continued its speedy pace, with over 8 million square feet on schedule to be delivered in 2022. But with inflation surpassing 8 percent and interest rates on the rise, the question now is how long will we continue this record-setting pace? Just-in-time to just-in-case As supply chain constraints emerged during the pandemic, businesses switched from the widely used just-in-time model to just-in-case, meaning drastic increases in inventory storage and logistic needs for many companies. Tenants scrambled to lease additional space to house what inventory they could get in stock. At the start of 2021, Class A industrial vacancy in Milwaukee was 9.68 percent. By the end of the year, that number had been slashed in half to just 4.39 percent as the flight to quality industrial product exceeded deliveries. In the fourth quarter of 2021, 1.65 million square feet of new industrial space …
OAK CREEK, WIS. — Stan Johnson Co. has brokered the sale of The Shoppes at Drexel in Oak Creek near Milwaukee for $5.9 million. The retail center spans 10,351 square feet and is fully leased to five tenants. Built in 2017, the property serves as an outparcel to Drexel Town Square, an 85-acre mixed-use development. Tenants include Mod Pizza, Men’s Hair House, Five Guys, Crumbl Cookies and Potbelly Sandwich Shop. Ronnie Givargis of Stan Johnson represented the seller, a New York-based individual investor. A Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based investor group was the buyer. Each party executed the transaction as part of a 1031 exchange. The sales price represents a cap rate of 5.9 percent.
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles-based Tauro Capital Advisors, on behalf of borrower IBF Properties, has facilitated a $149.7 million, one-year, floating-rate bridge loan for a 24-property Walgreens portfolio. The stores are located in nine states across the United States, primarily in Tennessee, Wisconsin and Alabama. The borrower is purchasing retail assets occupied by investment-grade tenants and plans to create a REIT to hold and operate the portfolio of income-producing real estate. Matt Bucaro, Eric Alvarez, Michael Bucaro, Matthew Ingle and Garryn Laws of Tauro Capital Advisors arranged the financing transaction. Benefit Street Partners was the lender. Totaling 314,852 square feet, the borrower purchased the portfolio in 2021. After acquisition, longer leases were negotiated for the majority of the tenants, which provided stability for those investors purchasing dividends within the REIT and offering a level of commitment by Walgreens to the sites and a low probability of leaving.
MADISON, WIS. — Milwaukee-based developer Klein Development, in partnership with Hintz Holdings, has acquired a three-story building located on Madison’s Capitol Square. Located at 14 W. Mifflin St., the property was originally constructed in 1924 as Baron’s Department Store. It is currently home to Rare Steakhouse on the ground floor. The building’s second and third floors boast roughly 20,000 square feet of vacant commercial space. Klein plans to reposition the property with assistance from Eppstein Uhen Architects. Renovations will be made to the first-floor lobby and restrooms on the second and third floors. Chase Brieman of CBRE will handle leasing. The seller and sales price were undisclosed.
Milwaukee is a city known for beer, motorcycles, basketball and blue-collar workers. However, Milwaukee should also be known for having a strong retail marketplace as well. With ever-changing markets and trends, retailers are finding many ways to get creative and adapt with the trends. Due to the adaptation, the competition for prime outlots is at an all-time high and does not appear to be changing any time soon. Outlot wars It’s with absolute certainly that the Milwaukee retail market has seen a massive influx for prime outlots. So much so that the phrase “outlot wars” is regularly used when describing retail outlot developments and redevelopments. In an already saturated segment of retail real estate, we have seen many new concepts/categories pushing to secure premium outlot sites in the market. Quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and fast-casual restaurants, auto and financial institutions are the biggest participants to date. Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, we have seen a pretty significant shift in the food category from QSR and fast-casual concepts alike. Milwaukee has seen many existing concepts continue to expand or reposition within a market, but we have also seen new concepts making a push to enter the market as …
GERMANTOWN, WIS. — Marcus & Millichap has negotiated the $3.8 million sale of a 10,782-square-foot property occupied by KinderCare in Germantown, a northern suburb of Milwaukee. Under corporate guarantor KinderCare Education, the childcare provider has just under 11 years remaining on its net lease. Dominic Sulo of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a Michigan-based limited liability company, while Sean Delaney and Jeffrey Herrmann of Marcus & Millichap represented the buyer, a California-based limited liability company. Dean Giannakopoulos and Frank Montalto of Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. originated acquisition financing.
BROOKFIELD, WIS. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of a 31,067-square-foot office building in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield for $3.2 million. Nu-Art Dental Lab occupies the net-leased property, which is located at 160 Bishops Way within the Bishop’s Woods Office Park. Nu-Art has occupied the building since 2013. The Rowlett Group of Marcus & Millichap’s Milwaukee office represented the seller, a private investor. The Rowlett Group and Tom Gommels of Marcus & Millichap’s Minneapolis office represented the buyer, an out-of-state limited liability company. The tenant had more than seven years remaining on its lease term at the time of sale.