Elm Grove-based Capstar Partners LLC and Whitefish Bay-based Vista Development LLC are joining forces to purchase a 4.3-acre vacant parcel of land on Pennsylvania Avenue in Cudahy east of Mitchell International Airport. The site is one block north of the recently opened Pennsylvania and Edgerton Avenues collector ramp to the Lake Park Freeway. They expect to close on the property in March and eventually plan to build a restaurant and two flex office/industrial buildings on the site.
The price and terms of the property sale were not disclosed. Chris Stecker of Keefe Commercial Real Estate represented Capstar, and Vista in brokering the sale.
The partnership reunites Paul Votto, managing partner of Capstar, and John Bernhardt, owner of Vista. The two were previously executives with Milwaukee-based Burke Properties, where Votto served as president and Bernhardt was chief financial officer. Votto left Burke in 2005 after 16 years to join Michael and Robert Keefe of Lake Geneva in forming Capstar. Bernhardt resigned from Burke in 2001 after 14 years to form Vista.
"We both think the area east of Mitchell is one of the most undervalued and underserved in all of southeastern Wisconsin," Bernhardt said.
"This area is just going to keep getting better," Votto said. "With a growing industrial park one block away and residential density already in place we see a growing demand for casual sit-down restaurants as well as for medical and high-tech office space."
