The Water Council is moving forward with plans to redevelop a second building for the Global Water Center to continue its mission to create an industry cluster in Milwaukee.
Last summer, a development group, which included the Water Council, purchased a five-story, 46,000- square-foot warehouse at 326-332 Florida St. in the city’s Walker’s Point neighborhood for $950,000 to provide additional space for the nearby Global Water Center.
The building, which will be known as Global Water Center II (GWC II) will be used for graduates of The Water Council’s business acceleration programs and for expanding and new industry cluster participants when it is completed in January 2017.
“It is simply ‘supply and demand’ as we need more space to meet the interest of businesses from across the world,” said Dean Amhaus, president and CEO of The Water Council. “GWC II will be a big help as it will provide options not available in our first building.”
The original 98,000-square-foot Global Water Center building at 247 W. Freshwater Way has more than 40 tenants who are a mix of entrepreneurs, water researchers and engineers. The building is fully occupied. The last available space was filled by Marquette University, which will open there on Thursday, Jan. 28.
Activities taking place within the Global Water Center range from research and development; startup company acceleration and mentoring; and business attraction initiatives.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) has given a $750,000 grant for the Global Water Center II project, which will help subsidize office space leases for eligible companies. WEDC’s assistance will allow The Water Council to lease 11,728-square-feet of GWC II across three levels for less than half of the market rate for three years.
