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Good Morning, In this edition of Real Results, we introduce you tothe opening of Brew City MKE, a pilot museum ofbeer and brewing with the most extensivecollection of Milwaukee beer history memorabiliain the city. Coupled with a bar featuring onlyMilwaukee‑brewed beers, Brew City MKE promisesto be hit. Mark you calendars! We are looking forward to theEmpty Storefront Conference presented by NAIOPand NEWaukee on Nov. 6. The conference will usethe City of Milwaukee as its laboratory, bringingtogether local, regional, and national thoughtleaders when it comes to bringing vacantstorefronts back to life. We also sit down with Josh Jeffers of J. Jeffers &Co. to hear about his philosophy behind his realestate company and what he is most excited aboutfor Milwaukee's future development. Are you looking for young professional talent? Inthe By the Numbers segment, we break down thedemographics and show t hat the only place foryour company to recruit and retain this cohort, isdowntown Milwaukee. Finally, Milwaukee Downtown recently added anew commercial property search for businesses,investors and developers looking for opportunities

In This IssueProject Spotlight: Brew City MKE is OpeningDowntown Tools: Downtown CommercialProperty Search ToolEvent Spotlight: Empty StorefrontConferenceBy The Numbers: Percentage of MillennialAged PopulationStakeholders Spotlight: Josh Jeffers, J.Jeffers & Co.

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in downtown Milwaukee. Check out how this toolcan quickly let you find all these opportunities inone easy to use location.  As always, thanks for reading! 

    

Matt DornerEconomic Development DirectorMilwaukee Downtown, BID #21mdorner@milwaukeedowntown.comFollow us on Twitter @RealResultsMKE

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT ­ Brew City MKE isOpening! 

The Milwaukee County Historical Society will beopening a new venue on October 4th, a pilot beerand brewing museum, called Brew City MKE thatbuilds off the very successful 2016 exhibit. Located at the intersection of Third Street andWest Wisconsin Avenue in the former ground floorrestaurant space at the Shops of Grand Avenue,Brew City MKE will feature an exhibit that exploresMilwaukee's beer and brewing history and a first‑of‑its‑kind Milwaukee Beer Bar. "We are excited toopen and to present Milwaukee's beer and brewinghistory in a whole new way," said Mame McCully,Executive Director of the Milwaukee CountyHistorical Society. Brew City MKE invites people to learn aboutMilwaukee's beer history through a combination of

 

 Downtown Milwaukee is a Millennial haven.Young workers love to live, work and play indowntown and with all of the new investmentunderway, this trend is sure to continue.More than 50% of downtown Milwaukee'spopulation is between the ages of 20‑34. 

This is more than double the State ofWisconsin and Metropolitan Area's millennialpopulation percentages respectively.

STAKEHOLDERS SPOTLIGHT ­ Josh JeffersPresident & CEO, J. Jeffers & Co. Founded in 2010, J. Jeffers & Co. is a realestate development and investment firmthat is dedicated to economicdevelopment and revitalization. The firmutilizes a combination of private equity,

artifacts, text and images, interactive and audiovisual components, and hands‑on opportunities.Visitors can also enjoy a beer or two during theirmuseum experience. The bar area also has a retailsection and space for small programs and events. Situated within a few blocks of thousands of hotelrooms, residents, and downtown employees, theWisconsin Center, and major event facilities, BrewCity MKE will be a destination for everyone. Milwaukee County Historical Society is pilotingBrew City MKE while it works to gain support andattention for the destination with the intention ofit potentially becoming a permanent fixture.  Opento the public Tuesday through Sunday, come downand enjoy a Milwaukee‑made brew and take a tourthrough the most extensive collection of beer andbrewing history at Brew City MKE!  

DOWNTOWN TOOLS ­Downtown CommercialProperty Search Tool Are you looking for your first or next investmentopportunity in downtown Milwaukee or where tolocate or expand your business? Look no further!With the recent launch of the  AvailableCommercial Property Search, you can quickly findall of the available office and retail properties indowntown Milwaukee with an easy‑to‑use mappingtool that simplifies the process of searching,inquiring, and selecting the perfect location foryour business or next development project.

Milwaukee Downtown staff can also connect youwith leasing representatives and propertymanagers. We can provide you with downtownmarket data and, in certain instances, incentiveprograms that may assist you in completing yourexpansion or relocation project. Click  here to seea map of available spaces in downtown Milwaukee

tax credits, and other soft sources offinancing as equity capital to makecomplex redevelopment projectsfinancially feasible. The firm achieves itsmission through efforts to increaseproperty values, create jobs, andpreserve historic structures thatcontribute to the evolving urbanenvironment.

What asset in the J. Jeffers & Co.portfolio are you most excited about?I am most excited about the vacant parkinglot that is located to the south of theMackie Building in downtown Milwaukee.We have plans for a new building on thissite that would break ground in 2018. Thenew building would represent the firstmajor new construction on the streetcarroute, and at approx. $33 million, it wouldput the total direct property investmentinto this block at over $100 million since2013. Wedged between the downtown eastsubmarket and the Third Ward, the"Broadway Connection" contains some ofthe best‑located real estate in Milwaukee.Up until this point, all of the recentinvestment in this area ‑ the Mackie‑Mitchell Buildings, the Hilton Garden Inn,and the Button Block Building ‑ have allbeen historic building restorations. It isenormously exciting to me that for the firsttime ‑ in a very long time ‑ we could havesome significant new construction in thisarea.

that are specifically within the boundaries of theBusiness Improvement District #21.  When it comes to finding the perfect location foryour business or next investment opportunity,Milwaukee Downtown is the one‑stop shop. We arehere to assist you! Please contact us . 

EVENT SPOTLIGHT ­Empty StorefrontsConference ­  presented byNAIOP and NEWaukeeNovember 6 | 8:30am ­ 6pmMultiple Milwaukee Locations 

NAIOP , the Commercial Real Estate DevelopmentAssociation, and NEWaukee present the 3rd annualEmpty Storefronts Conference. This day‑longconference features national, regional, and localexperts discussing holistic solutions, nationaltrends, best practices, and success stories thatlead to action plans to spark ideas for filling emptystorefronts on a small and large scale.

This year's schedule highlights include:

"From Empty Storefronts to VibrantDevelopments ‑ How do we get there?"

‑ Swasti Shah,  Urban Land Institute |  Chicago,IL

"The Hurdles and Rewards of Developmentwith a Purpose"

‑ Melissa Goins,  Maures Development Group, LLC | Milwaukee, WI‑ Josh Jeffers,  J Jeffers & Co. |  Milwaukee, WI‑ Juli Kaufmann, Fix Development | Milwaukee,WI

‑ Joaquin Altoro, Town Bank | Milwaukee, WI

"The Boxyard Development" ‑ Casey Stowe,  Nelson+Stowe Development/

Boxyard Development  | Tulsa, OK

"Equitable Entrepreneurship and Innovationin Detroit"

‑ April Boyle,  Build Institute  | Detroit, MI

What is unique about the J. Jeffers & Co.real estate strategy that sets yourcompany apart from others? We are in the business of urbanrevitalization. It's a complicated businessmodel, and it is not easily scalable. Withmany of our projects, we need to re‑inventthe wheel each time to identify customizedsolutions to complex public‑privatetransactions. The reason that we've beenable to make it work is because we focus onsuch a broad array of asset classes ‑ office,retail, market‑rate and affordable housing,assisted living, hospitality, etc. We are alsonot afraid of seeding or supporting smalland/or start‑up operating business. As aresult, we can take almost any challengedproperty and identify what its highest andbest use truly is, and then work backwardsto see how we can make the financial mathwork to support its (re)development. It's anonstop, every day exercise in creativeproblem‑solving.      Are there any development projects orinitiatives that you see as a key toMilwaukee's continued growth?The key to Milwaukee's continued growthlies in revitalization of its neighborhoods.We can't prosper as a city if theneighborhoods are struggling. We aremaking progress in this area. This monthwe will be opening the doors to therehabilitated Garfield School Apartments.In addition, we are on track to completethe new construction Griot Apartments inspring. These two adjacent propertiesrepresent nearly $18 million invested intoboth historic preservation and modernconstruction in the Bronzevilleneighborhood. We have had a greatexperience working with co‑developerMelissa Goins of Maures Development onboth projects, and look forward to lease‑upand stabilization of the new properties.  What do you see as downtownMilwaukee's greatest upcomingopportunity?I look forward to seeing how downtown willevolve over the next several years as aresult of the boom in the residentialpopulation. Ten years ago there were somany blighted and/or vacant buildings here‑ the former Blue Cross Blue ShieldBuilding, Posner, Germania, Mackie, ButtonBlock, Commerce Building, etc. ‑ that heldthe area down. Today those buildings haveall been brought back to life, primarily ashigh quality residential uses. And the

"From Me to We: How a community decidedthe future use of a historic building"

‑ Chelsey Mazurek,  Incourage Foundation |Wisconsin Rapids, WI

The conference kicks off at the former NationalACE Hardware building adjacent to the Park Eastcorridor in Downtown Milwaukee. Afternoonbreakout sessions will take place in Midtown at theformer Lowes, Uptown Crossing at UptownCommerce & Community Building, Avenues West atthe Mobile Design Box, and Downtown at 1433Water (location of the new Bader Rutterheadquarters). Closing keynotes will take place inthe Grand Warner Theatre on West WisconsinAvenue. Tickets include breakfast, lunch, and happy houras well as shuttle service to breakout sessions andback to the starting location at the end of theconference. Visit emptystorefrontconference.comfor the full schedule, tickets, and moreinformation on the featured speakers andneighborhoods!

residential trend continues with few signsof slowing down. As a result, we arestarting to see suburban businesses re‑locating to downtown or opening secondlocations here and more national retailersin the Third Ward. I think the next area to pop is the WestWisconsin corridor. In ten years, thatsubmarket could be a totally differentplace as Marquette works through its $600million construction pipeline, as the BucksArena and its adjacent properties arecompleted, and as some of theoffice/retail/residential users in thesurging submarkets east of the river startlooking to West Wisconsin for bettervalues.   When you are not working, what is one ofyour favorite hobbies? I teach an undergraduate course at UW‑Madison called the Real Estate Process. It'sone of the biggest classes in the WisconsinBusiness School at approx. 270 students. Asa graduate of the UW Real Estate program,I personally took this class 17 years ago,and I remember what it was like to learnfor the first time how real estate worked.It was one of the few experiences thatdirectly changed my life. It's an honor tonow teach the course, and it is admittedlya little bit therapeutic for me. Afterspending a long day negotiating overlycomplicated tax credit deals, it's actually alittle relaxing to stand in front of so manybright, blank slate minds and talk aboutthe very basics of what a mortgage is, whata deed is, or how a lease works, and workin the occasional connections to my activeprojects. 

 

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT MILWAUKEE HAS IN STORE ATWWW.MILWAUKEEDOWNTOWN.COM/DOING­BUSINESS.

  Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21Matt Dorner 600 East Wells Street Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202‑3811 mdorner@milwaukeedowntown.com (414) 220‑4700 ext. 4 

 

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