The new economy is breathing life into older downtown buildings as high-tech tenants fill space that once housed breweries, knitting factories and other old-line businesses.
The buildings, which are 80 to 130 years old, are considered obsolete by some when compared to the metro area’s modern office towers and business parks.
But the former dinosaurs seem to have what technology companies need, including serendipitous locations along underground fiber-optic lines. Many of the lines, the highways of the Internet, originate downtown and are needed for the high-tech firms to do business.
“Basically, it’s all about one word: connectivity,” said Tom Gale, a commercial real estate broker with Wangard Partners Inc.
Gale is brokering the sale of the Pioneer Building, 625 N. Milwaukee St., to an unnamed local technology company. That company wants the Pioneer Building, built in 1870 and half-empty for the past few years, largely to connect with nearby fiber-optic lines, which carry data at high speeds.
Along with their locations, the Pioneer Building and other properties have physical characteristics demanded by high-tech tenants.
Among the characteristics: Ceilings up to 12-feet high to accommodate telecom switching equipment and other computerized gear. That equipment often stands up to 8-feet high, and cool air needs to flow above to keep it from overheating.
Also needed: Floors supporting 150 to 250 pounds per square foot to handle the weight of the switching equipment and other gear. Space for backup power supply systems, including generators and batteries.
A company that provides data transmission services, for example, cannot afford to have down-time if a power failure occurs.
Some of those features aren’t found in modern office buildings, which often have ceiling heights of 8 to 9 feet and floors that can only support 60 to 80 pounds per square foot, said Gale and other brokers.
One older building attracting new interest is the 78-year-old Dye House, 320 E. Buffalo St. The former industrial property is being sold to Los Angeles-based real estate investor RPD Catalyst LLC, which plans to attract data service providers, Web hosting companies and other high-tech firms.
The Dye House has 12-foot ceilings, floors that can support up to 200 pounds per square foot and “the connectivity we’re looking for,” said RPD President Scott Dew.
Another building profiting from the high-tech invasion is the Wells Building, a turn-of-the-century building at 324 E. Wisconsin Ave.
The building’s occupancy rate has soared from around 60 percent to over 90 percent in the past two years, thanks to such new tenants as Colo.com — a California-based company that provides broadband services to telecom companies, Internet service providers and other Internet-based businesses. Colo.com started leasing 5,200 square feet in June.
“The Wells Building, because of its location, has become a center for technology-oriented companies,” said Michael Mervis, spokesman for building owner Towne Realty Inc.
Other high-tech tenants that have located in and around downtown include TCG Group, an AT&T Corp. subsidiary that is moving this fall into 15,000 square feet at the Blatz Washhouse, 1101 N. Market St., and Williams Communications Group Inc., which earlier this year began leasing 21,000 square feet at a C. Coakley Relocation Systems building, 507 S. 2nd St.
TCG Group looked at other buildings downtown before settling on the Blatz Washhouse, a former Blatz Brewery building that was later converted into office space, said Robert Flood, a broker with Inland Cos.
Other high-tech tenants coming to Milwaukee, however, might find themselves looking in such neighborhoods as Walker’s Point, where Williams Communications is leasing space in a building that was originally built as a knitting factory.
That’s because it’s becoming more difficult to find space downtown that can meet the needs of telecom companies and other technology firms, said Andrew Jensen, a Boerke Co. broker.
