The downtown Milwaukee Boston Store building is on the market.
Bostco LLC, an affiliate of Wispark LLC, listed the building, at 331 W. Wisconsin Ave., with CBRE last week. The nine-story complex is located on what could become one of the city’s hottest corners, with plans to extend the streetcar line along Fourth Street and the city of Milwaukee issuing a request for proposal later this week to develop the 2-acre vacant parking lot across the street at Fourth and Wisconsin.
Jerry Franke, president of Wispark LLC, would not say what Wispark is asking for the building, which includes Bon-Ton’s corporate headquarters, a Boston Store and 74 market rate apartments. The city of Milwaukee has assessed the property at $20.3 million.
“There is a demand for market rate apartments so we are putting this out there and gauging interest,” Franke said.
The Boston Store occupies about 130,000 square feet on the first two floors. Bon-Ton’s corporate offices are on floors three through five, consisting of 170,358 square feet. The one- and two-bedroom apartments are on the sixth through ninth floors.
Wispark also owns the Matthews building, 301 W. Wisconsin Ave., with the exception of the first two floors, which is owned by The Aggero Group, which owns the Shops of Grand Avenue. The Bon-Ton listing has no effect on the Matthews building, Franke said.
Franke said the decision to put the Boston Store building on the market has nothing to do with the possible development of the Fourth and Wisconsin site. Wispark had been considering selling the Bon-Ton property for several years, but had to wait until a 12-year-old lawsuit with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District was settled.
