Poblocki Paving Company, known for its clever puns and asphalt work, is moving operations to a former office building in New Berlin in an effort to provide a central location for its workforce.
The move will mean the sale of its buildings at 515 S. 116th St. in West Allis, 423 Curtis Road in Milwaukee, and 7930 Clinton Road in Milwaukee, the latter of which is currently being considered as a potential site for a new state juvenile detention facility. The company will be holding on to its original Milwaukee location at 12211 W. Fairview Avenue in Milwaukee, where its popular sign along I-94 is located. It will also be retaining a 157-acre property it purchased in Madison last year.
Greg Kastenholz, president of Poblocki, said the 88,700-sqiare-foot building at 16363 W. Ryerson Road, which is located in a large business park between Calhoun and Moorland roads, will provide the ideal space to bring the company’s 200 employee-owners together under one roof.
“We have decided that being under one roof is better culture. Being employee-owned it’s key to keep everyone together, so employees can see what all the divisions are doing,” he said.
An affiliate of Poblocki recently acquired the building, which last served as an FIS data center, for $2.75 million. The property includes about 38 acres in land, much of it undeveloped, but the company does not have any current plans to build on it.
The move should also alleviate some space constraints the company has had to deal with recent years as it moved its headquarters from the Fairview site to the West Allis site and back again, Kastenholz said.
“We were moving around, it was just time to find the right site,” he added.
Although most of the company’s heavy equipment stays on its job sites, Kastenholz said the new building and property will provide space to things like plows. There will also be space for equipment repair and maintenance, he said.
The company is still finalizing what it plans to spend on building renovations, Kastenholz said, but the plan is to make the company’s new home more inviting to workers, with better locker rooms and other facilities.
“Everything will be new and state of the art. We are more than just a paving company. We want our employees to have a really nice office space,” Kastenholz said. “We will take it one building at a time; slowly move things in over the next six months.”
As for the parking lot at the new building, well, that is already ready for workers.
“We paved this site years ago, so we’re getting our asphalt back,” Kastenholz quipped.
