Marquette University will open its water research facilities on the sixth floor of the Global Water Center on Thursday, Jan. 28.
The Global Water Center, located in a 100,000-square-foot, seven-story building in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood, is now fully occupied. Marquette is leasing 8,000 square feet on the building’s sixth floor. The university has installed lab areas, work stations, offices and conference rooms for water research projects.
Marquette plans to begin several water-related projects at the facility this year. Among them: conducting wastewater treatment research, engineering rainwater collection systems and exploring new methods to turn saltwater into potable freshwater.
The Global Water Center was completed in 2013 and cost $22 million. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater have already moved into spaces at the building.
“It’s tremendous just to be able to have multiple research universities in one space,” said Dean Amhaus, president and chief executive officer of The Water Council, which runs the Global Water Center. “I think it’s just unheard of anywhere. Marquette’s just going to add significant value with their research and their graduate students.”
In all, 45 water-related businesses and organizations occupy space in the building.
“We’re crammed,” Amhaus said. “We’re trying to squeeze people in to different places. We have gone forward on purchasing a second building and we’re looking to secure tenants on that right now. We’re working with the architects on the renovations and designs.”
Construction and renovations for a second water center location, which will be located in a 121-year-old former industrial building on West Florida Street, near the main Global Water Center building, could begin within the next two months, Amhaus said.
The 46,000-square-foot Florida Street building was purchased in the summer of 2015 for $950,000 by Global Water center II LLC, an affiliate of Milwaukee-based real estate development firm HKS Holdings LLC and the Global Water Center.
Amhaus said The Water Council is in the process of securing tenants for the second water center, but did not reveal the names of any interested businesses or organizations.
