Mostly-vacant office building would see new life as housing. By Jeramey Jannene - May 6th, 2021 04:40 pm //end headline wrapper ?>The Sentinel Building. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Another aging downtown office building would see new life as housing.
An investment group led by
“We are still going through the design and working with the city on code compliance,” said Gollatz in an interview with Urban Milwaukee.
Constructed in 1892 and home to the namesake newspaper until 1930, the 10-story building was 70% vacant when Gollatz’ Mason Street Ventures LLC acquired it for $2.1 million in February.
“We love the area. We love the history of the building,” he told Urban Milwaukee. “Obviously office use is not the biggest thing out there for investors or anybody in real estate right now.”
Mason St Ventures acquired the property from Sentinel Suites LLC, an Illinois-based investment group led by
Doug Young. The Illinois firm paid Milwaukee investor
Max Dermond $1.53 million in 2018 for the property. It was billed as 50% vacant at the time.
Now it’s 70% vacant.
Alex Zank, would turn the building into apartments.
“It’s a really cool building, a lot of history behind it, and it’s in a prime location right downtown,” Gollatz told Zank. “You don’t see many buildings like that come up for sale at a semi-affordable price point.” The property is assessed for $1.58 million.
The conversion could result in 30 apartments in the 30,848-square-foot building. Gollatz said his group is now talking with architects and contractors.