Marketing firm to go to Walker’s Point

A downtown Milwaukee marketing firm plans to buy and redevelop a Walker’s Point building for its new offices.

Gravity Marketing LLC is buying a two-story, 5,300square-foot building at 720722 S. 5th St., where it will relocate, according to information filed with the Milwaukee Economic Development Corp.

Gravity is seeking a $182,000 loan from MEDC, a nonprofit business lender, to help finance the project.

Johnson Bank would be the main lender on the $464,000 project, which includes a $275,000 building purchase and renovations totaling $189,000.

Gravity now leases around 3,000 square feet at 305 N. Plankinton Ave., within the Pritzlaff complex. Those connected buildings, at N. Plankinton and W. St. Paul avenues, include event venues, other offices and apartments.

The planned move to Walker’s Point would provide more space for the growing firm, Gravity President Michael Kuharske said Monday.

Gravity has 11 full- and part-time employees, and plans to add six employees within two years, according to MEDC.

Kuharske has lived in Walker’s Point for several years, and he said he is committed to the neighborhood. He hopes to move his business by Aug. 1.

Gravity’s future building once housed the Milwaukee Beer Museum, a collection of beer industry memorabilia.

The firm’s offices would be the latest in a series of new investments on a seven-block stretch of S. 5th St., between W. Virginia and W. Scott streets, that was recently rebuilt.

Other newer developments include a former industrial building, at 644 S. 5th St., that was converted into a second location for Fuel Cafe, a longtime Riverwest coffeehouse; Juiced, a natural juice production business; Proximity Malt; and TKWA UrbanLab architectural studio.

Gravity’s loan request is to be reviewed by the MEDC Loan & Finance Committee at its Tuesday meeting.