The shifting foundations of the Milwaukee economy are playing out one building at a time along a five-block stretch of West Pierce Street on the near south side, as services and retail move in next door to old-line industries.
“This is really the start of something big here,” said Jim Dieter, who bought and refurbished an obsolete former manufacturing building at the northwest corner of West Pierce and South 12th Streets.
“Right now, it’s very industrial,” he said. “But so was the Third Ward. And look at it now.”
What there is to look at on Pierce Street is a new high-end antiques store and the $6.8 million expansion of a commercial kitchen. The owner of an old factory plans to convert part of that building to artists’ studios. All of that is side by side with weedy vacant lots and scrap yards.
This streetscape is a far cry from the Third Ward’s boutiques, fine dining, offices and condos. But Pierce Street is just a block from the lively retail strips along West National Avenue and South 16th Street, also known as Cesar Chavez Drive. It is not far from downtown.
The area also is just a few blocks west of Walker’s Point, where new housing and retail developments are sprouting.
With real estate development occurring all around it, Pierce Street is beginning to benefit from an inevitable ripple effect. Investments by Dieter and others are laying the foundation for what neighborhood boosters hope will be continued improvement.
“We can’t let up,” said Maria Monreal-Cameron, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, which is building its $2 million headquarters at 1021 W. National Ave., just one block south of Pierce Street. “We have to keep the momentum going.”
Dieter bought his 60,000-square-foot building for $225,000 in 1999. He moved his antique furniture restoration business there from a small space nearby.
Dieter wanted to stay on the near south side because he saw its growth potential, not unlike the Uptown area in Minneapolis, where he once owned commercial buildings. Uptown was a rundown business district when a group of local property owners formed a neighborhood improvement group in 1975. Since then, Uptown has added stores, restaurants and condos.
Dieter, who sold his Uptown properties after moving to Milwaukee 15 years ago, said Milwaukee could eventually have the cultural cachet that Minneapolis enjoys. And the area around Pierce Street could earn a funky reputation like Uptown’s.
Dieter also was attracted to the circa 1910 building because he likes older buildings. This one — for which he paid $3.75 a square foot — was affordable, unlike the turn of the Century manufacturing buildings in the Third Ward, which were selling for about $25 to $30 a square foot five years ago.
Dieter rented part of his building to an industrial tenant, and some of that income went right back into the property in the form of new bathrooms, lighting, windows and ventilation equipment, reshaping it for retail use.
He declined to specify his total investment in the property, but said it was in the high six figures.
Now, the payoff. In June he opened Blackhawk Antiques Market, 633 S. 12th St. With 30,000 square feet on two floors and 120 dealers, it is one of the largest antiques markets in Milwaukee and specializes in higher-end items, such as a $795, 94-year-old rocking horse.
Already, Blackhawk draws customers from throughout Milwaukee and greater Chicago.
When additional space opens up in the building, Dieter plans to fill it with another retailer.
Blackhawk’s early success hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Tom Kranick, who owns a 92,000-square-foot building at 1512 W. Pierce St., recently received city Plan Commission approval to rezone it to allow for artist studios. Kranick said the investments by other Pierce property owners swayed him to invest in the building that his family has owned for several years.
The 85-year-old building, once the site of a cookie and cracker factory, is now used mainly for storage and houses an adult literacy center.
Kranick, who owns three other nearby buildings, isn’t sure how much space he’ll convert to artist studios. He got the idea after chatting with artists at shows about their need for roomy and affordable work space.
The Pierce Street property has ceiling heights of 10 to 12 feet, providing ample space for artists to work, and tall windows that admit a lot of light.
Meanwhile, Dieter plans to create a studio on his third floor, and Milwaukee artist Charles Dwyer is interested in the space.
Dwyer, who now works out of a small studio in the Bay View area, likes Pierce Street’s low cost and quiet atmosphere.
“It’s just slightly out of the way,” said Dwyer, a painter and photographer. “Sometimes you don’t want to be bothered.”
