X marked the spot – Car-X closes downtown Milwaukee site

With Car-X closure, downtown drivers have one less spot for auto service
Downtown Milwaukee workers and residents now have fewer choices for auto service with the closure of the Car-X business at Juneau Avenue and Old World Third Street.
The closure reflects rising land values and demand for parking downtown. It’s economics at work, says Dan McCarthy of Milwaukee Department of City Development.
“I think what you are seeing here is higher and best use for the real estate at work,” McCarthy says. “The development that is being proposed for that site (the former Car-X location) — which is not yet made public — is a more intensive development. We are doing nothing to discourage auto service businesses in the downtown. What you will see is that those types of functions may be developed in more of a multi-use situation.”
But the trend in recent years has been in the opposite direction of multi-use as auto service businesses located at downtown parking ramps and lots have been ousted by the owners or operators of the structures.
The downtown Car-X closed in June. In the past few years, gas and service stations in the Bank One parking structure and in the First Financial Centre parking structure have closed, as has a service station in the nearby Third Ward, that operation being shut down to make way for a parking structure.
But zoning laws, which according to McCarthy favor the inclusion of auto service in parking structures, should help things along. According to McCarthy, regulations require the first level of a parking structure to include some type of mixed-use aspect.
Glimmer of hope
According to Phil Burns of Juneau Square Union 76 Plaza Service, in the shadow of the Firstar Center at 824 E. Michigan, the trend is undeniable — but there is hope.
“There used to be one over by Bank One, and by Firstar,” Burns said of auto service businesses that had formerly been located in or adjacent to parking ramps. “The property is worth more money than what they can pay. The owners don’t care about their clients getting the service — they just want the money.”
Burns sees the problem as one of awareness on the part of the owners of downtown real estate.
“Big corporations are forcing people out. They just wanted to raise their rent so high auto-service businesses can’t afford to be there,” he said. “They don’t understand how much of a need there is to have this service for their employees. We have so many customers — people who work at Baird, Polacheck, even Firstar. These people drop their cars off here. These owners don’t realize that if we weren’t here, that lady will have to drop her car off at the dealership. She will be an hour late — and will have to leave an hour early because the dealership closes at 5 p.m.”
But there are enlightened people out there — including Mark Irgens of Irgens Development Partners in Wauwatosa. According to Burns, Irgens’ company recently purchased the parcel Burns’ business is located on — and is considering an office structure for the prime site between the Firstar Center and O’Donnell Park.
“Mark Irgens — the new owner — he is giving me basically a verbal agreement for another repair facility for customers in the new building,” Burns said. “They’ve told us that they were going to put us back in because of the need.”
Other offers are being extended to Burns as well.
“The guy who bought the gas company building downtown has talked to me about being located there,” Burns said. “The Milwaukee Athletic Club knows there’s a need for it. They have thought of doing it, but don’t have the employees to do oil changes and everything. We might locate in their basement, at least until the new building is ready. Of course, once we are down there in their basement, it would be hard to decide to leave entirely.”
Burns’ family has been servicing autos downtown for 35 years; the business handles everything from oil changes to brakes to exhaust — even detailing. More demanding engine work is farmed out, Burns said.
“We’re open 6 a.m. until 6 at night,” Burns said. “If a guy needs a ride down to Wisconsin Avenue, we give him one. A business like ours bends over backwards for a lot of people.”
Gas an issue
Jim Minelli owns and operates Minelli’s Brake and Auto — a service facility and Citgo gas station at St. Paul and Plankinton avenues that stays open a little later than Burns — until 8 p.m. But the gas pumps stay on 24 hours so those with credit cards can pay at the pump. Like Burns, Minelli has a long history and a lot invested in his business.
“I’ve been here since 1967,” Minelli said. “But this location was a service station continuously since 1967. I bought in 1991, remodeled it in 1993 and 1994 — it was a real mess.”
Minelli said he used $680,000 in Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Administration (PECFA) money and $40,000 of his own dollars to remove leaking underground tanks and remediate the site. That did not include the cost of clean fill, purchasing the land, remodeling the building and adding environmentally sensitive infrastructure. As part of his overhaul of the site, Minelli said he has installed double-wall tanks and lines — and overfill containment areas — to prevent petroleum from leaching into the soil again.
Yet Minelli says the city has not been entirely supportive of his operation. According to Minelli, the city erected barriers to his addition of a car wash — until he proved that his business’s location along the Milwaukee River is regulated by the federal rather than state and local government.
“Right behind me is federally charted water,” Minelli said. “The city and state can’t tell me what to do. You can take a boat from right out my back door and travel anywhere in the world. That’s because up to the bridge (at St. Paul Avenue) you have unrestricted access to the river ….”
That access means that Minelli’s location could be coveted for condominiums, office space, or a mixed-use development that combined both elements with large-craft access. Minelli says he has Army Corps of Engineers approval to operate a marina at the site. The corps has jurisdiction over such waterways.
“My business is obviously not the highest and best use of this land,” Minelli admits. “You could knock this down and put a six-story building here. As a matter of fact, there once was a six-story building here.”
Minelli’s site is across the street from the Plankinton Avenue exit from eastbound I-794, which gives him great visibility. But state planners have suggested elimination of the Plankinton Avenue ramps as part of the redevelopment of the Marquette interchange.
While other shops in and around downtown provide auto service, Minelli’s is one of the few that sells fuel.
Pure service-oriented businesses may be able to make a go of it in the ground floor of parking structures, but Minelli said selling gasoline and diesel in those structures is an unlikely proposition.
“You might be able to service vehicles — but gas — no one wants that on their property because PECFA won’t be around to help you anymore,” Minelli said, referring to the threat of a spill and the state’s program to help pay for the clean-up of petroleum-contaminated soil.
Minelli said he would probably sell one day — and would not speculate whether it would be to someone who would continue in the auto service business or someone who would raze his building and erect something else.
“I am in the way of redevelopment,” Minelli said. “I have the river frontage. And there is the added fact that they could expand the thoroughfare to bring more traffic in easier from the south — there are all these roads they want to build.”
Other remaining downtown Milwaukee auto services shops include the Firestone tire and service center at 6th and Wells streets, and import service facilities O’Reilly Motor Cars at 324 W. Cherry St. and British Auto Service at 333 W. Court St.
July 6, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee