Replacement state office building planned for downtown

Proposal would bring five locations together

Gov. Scott Walker outlined plans to sell the state office building downtown and construct a new building in a move he predicted will have a “catalytic impact” in the surrounding city neighborhoods.

The plans would consolidate five different locations into a single office building, meaning, for example, that the Department of Natural Resources headquarters for southeastern Wisconsin at 2300 N. Martin Luther King Drive would be moved.

Walker estimated the cost of a new building at about $50 million. State budget documents in early 2017 put the cost at about $65 million.

Walker said that selling the building at 819 N. 6th St., which has an assessed value of $9.7 million, “frees up some pretty prime real estate for economic development.”

The existing nine-story state office building opened in 1963.

The state formally asked for proposals on Friday and set a 30-day deadline to receive bids. A decision is expected by May 28, although the project must be approved by the State Building Commission.

The bid proposal says Wisconsin officials are seeking a building with 165,000 square feet and 680 spaces for parking.

The preferred location is roughly bounded by W. Hampton Ave on the north, W. Mitchell St. on the south, N. Holton St. on the east and Highway 175 on the west.

State planners have estimated that a new office building would save $1.2 million annually in maintenance and energy costs and savings in consolidating rent from other offices in Milwaukee.

Officials signaled an interest to replace the building last year in the state’s capital budget.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Jan. 26 that Near West Side Partners Inc. was eyeing the office building as as a potential project.

Near West Side Partners is a nonprofit group supported by Marquette University and others, which is buying several properties on two blocks of W. Wisconsin Ave.

A spokesman for the group said Friday it has not formally stated a specific use for the properties.

On other matters, Walker said that at a trip to the White House on Monday to discuss infrastructure issues, he will once again push for approval of a $246.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation that would pay for about half the remaining cost of upgrading I-94 south of Milwaukee.

The state Department of Transportation is planning to convert I-94 from three to four lanes from south of College Ave. in Milwaukee County to state Highway 142 in Kenosha County by December 2021.