A prominent corner site in Milwaukee's Bronzeville district has been purchased by a local developer with plans to stabilize the property, add residences and attract new tenants.
Milwaukee-based development firm
Emem Group purchased the 0.7-acre site at 2220 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive for $1.4 million. The property, located at the southeast corner of King Drive and North Avenue, has four buildings with the oldest constructed in 1885, totaling about 13,000 square feet of space.
At closing, the buildings were 77% vacant, according to a press release from
Blue West Capital, a real estate firm based in Colorado, which represented the seller.
Emem Group plans on renovating some of the buildings' spaces and stabilizing the property by adding two apartment units and filling the vacant retail space.
The firm has parties interested in one of the empty retail spaces and is working with a yet-to-be-named restaurant operator for a 5,000-square-foot restaurant space already built out in the building, Emem Group president and chief executive officer
Michael Emem told BizTimes.
Emem Group will also move its office to the building. Emem Group's office is currently located at 315 W. Court St., just off of King Drive.
"We just celebrated our five year company anniversary in December and, as our firm is growing, we need more office space," Emem said.
Emem Group currently has $40 million in projects underway in the Bronzeville and King Drive areas, including the mixed-use MLK Library Apartments project and the Bronzeville Center for the Arts.
"This acquisition is part of our strategy to diversify our real estate portfolio in Milwaukee, specifically in the Bronzeville and King Dirve neighborhoods, and other cultural districts that have been historically disinvested," Emem said. "We are very bullish on this area."
The property was sold by a Milwaukee-based investor, according to the press release.
"We were pleased with the offer from Emem Group especially given their in-depth knowledge of the neighborhood and their involvement in most of the redevelopment activities in the area,” said Shawn Dickmann, an investment sales associate with Blue West Capital, in the press release.
Other nearby recent development projects and proposals include the Riverwest Workforce Apartments and Food Accelerator, Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy, America’s Black Holocaust Museum, The Griot Apartments and ThriveOn King development.
"We strongly believe in the renaissance that is happening along King Drive and in Bronzeville and this acquisition is us putting our money where our mouth is," Emem said.
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2220 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Milwaukee. Image from Blue West Capital.[/caption]
