The downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin post office has been sold for $13 million, potentially setting the stage for a huge redevelopment project that would include retail stores, a high-end grocery, offices and restaurants along the building’s riverfront.
The 1.1 million-square-foot building, one of the city’s largest buildings, was sold Friday to R2 Companies and Polsky Holdings, both of Chicago, Illinois.
“We’re really excited about the potential for this site,” Matt Garrison, managing principal at R2, said in an interview Monday.
Since 1968, the building has been home to the U.S. Postal Service, which has a lease that runs five more years but had been considering venues in metropolitan Milwaukee for a more efficient site.
The downtown site, which includes a four-story building on 9.3 acres of riverfront, long has been considered by city officials as a top site for redevelopment, in part because of its connections to transportation.
“It has tremendous potential because it’s on the streetcar line, it is on the Hiawatha (Amtrak) line to Chicago, it’s on the Menomonee River and it is on St. Paul,” said Rocky Marcoux, commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of Development.