Rite-Hite Holding Corp., currently based in Brown Deer, announced Friday it is in the “final stages of diligence” on the acquisition of 9.4 acres for a new headquarters at Reed Street Yards in Milwaukee.
“The new headquarters will afford us the space and resources to expand our operations, attract and retain talent, and continue to support our customers in a first class manner,” said Paul Maly, chief executive officer of Rite-Hite, a global industrial equipment manufacturer and supplier.
The company plans to bring around 300 employees from its Milwaukee-area locations to work at the new facility. The new headquarters will also feature a customer experience center to host customers from around the world and serve as a training base for employees.
Rite-Hite expects to move into the new facility in March 2022 and has partnered with Eppstein Uhen Architects on the project.
The announcement confirms a
November 2019 BizTimes Media report that the company was considering the site.
At the time, real estate sources said the company was targeting site near downtown Milwaukee. Rite-Hite had previously opened an office in the Historic Third Ward for more than 20 sales management and corporate marketing employees along with supporting its training programs.
Two sources also said in November that Rite-Hite was looking to move out of Brown Deer at least in part because of a legal dispute between the company and the village. The village sought to seize six acres of land from the company for a new public works facility. Rite-Hite
challenged the action in court back in 2017. The company said losing the land would limit its options for expanding its corporate headquarters. The two parties settled the dispute and the village eventually acquired the land from the company.
Landing Rite-Hite is a major win for the Reed Street Yards development, a 17-acre site along West Freshwater Way just south of downtown between south Third and Sixth streets.
Billed as a research and technology park focused on Milwaukee’s growing water industry, Reed Street Yards scored an early win with the construction of headquarters for Rexnord-subsidiary Zurn in 2015 but development progress has since stalled or slowed.
