Enerpac Tool Group, a global manufacturer currently based in Menomonee Falls, is planning to move its corporate headquarters to downtown Milwaukee.
The company will occupy about 50,000 square feet of office space in the ASQ Center, located at 600-648 N. Plankinton Ave. in Milwaukee's Westown neighborhood, according to multiple commercial real estate industry sources.
Enerpac chief executive officer Paul Sternlieb declined to comment.
Founded in 1910, Enerpac is a manufacturer of industrial tools, producing more than 50,000 products like cylinders/jacks, pumps, bolting tools, presses, pullers and heavy lifting technology. The company had nearly $600 million in net sales and $53.6 million in net earnings in its 2023 fiscal year.
Enerpac employs about 2,100 people globally, with 28 facilities in 22 countries, according to its website.
Sources said the company's headquarters will occupy office space on the fourth floor of the ASQ Center.
The ASQ Center is named for the American Society for Quality (ASQ), which is headquartered in the building. Formerly a Gimbel’s department store, and later a Marshall Field's department store, the ASQ Center was converted into a mixed use building in 2001 and now includes office space, a Planet Fitness center and a Residence Inn by Marriott hotel. The building is eight stories tall at its highest point and has about 240,000 square feet of total space.
Enerpac's headquarters is currently located in an 81,503-square-foot office building at N86 W12500 Westbrook Crossing in Menomonee Falls. That building was built by Milwaukee-based Irgens Partners in 2011 for Enerpac, then called Actuant Corp. The company rebranded as Enerpac in 2019.
Irgens sold that Menomonee Falls building for about $15 million in 2014. At that time Enerpac had 12 years remaining on its lease.
Enerpac is joining a growing number of companies that have moved or added office space in or near downtown Milwaukee in recent years,
helping the submarket's office market stand out post-pandemic.
In the past five years, companies like Milwaukee Tool, Rite-Hite, Twin Disc, Regal Rexnord and Church Mutual have collectively occupied more than 810,000 square feet of office space in or near downtown Milwaukee.
In 2022, Fiserv announced plans to move its headquarters from Brookfield to downtown Milwaukee and occupy about 160,000 square feet of office space, and work on the space is now nearing completion. Last year, Northwestern Mutual announced a 540,000-square-foot renovation of one of its existing downtown office buildings and will close its Franklin campus, moving those employees downtown.
Veolia also announced in 2023 that it would occupy 30,00 square feet at the ASQ Center, moving from Milwaukee's west side.
So far in 2024, Allspring Investments
announced that it will move its 300 employees from Menomonee Falls to the Third Ward.
The metro Milwaukee
office market's vacancy at the end of 2023 had risen 17.7%, according to a report from the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin.
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Enerpac's current headquarters in Menomonee Falls. Image from Crexi[/caption]