Florida Yards finishes just as Harbor District rises
V. Marchese buys last parcel for parking lot
Florida Yards Industrial Park is selling its last lot — nearly 30 years after city officials began targeting the site south of Milwaukee’s downtown for development.
The preceding sentence doesn’t exactly scream success.
Yet, the obscure, small Florida Yards project is finishing up at a time when its surrounding Harbor District area is poised to become perhaps the next big Milwaukee development wave.
That could include a fresh look at urban industrial sites.
“I think maybe in some ways (Florida Yards) was before its time,” said James T. Barry III, president of Barry Co., a Milwaukee commercial real estate brokerage that focuses on industrial properties.
The 15-acre industrial park, developed by the city, has a somewhat hidden location: south of East Florida Street and east of a steep railroad embankment.
Florida Yards is part of Walker’s Point. But that neighborhood’s new apartments, restaurants and bars along South 1st Street, just a couple blocks to the west, almost feel like they’re on another planet.
Florida Yards, named for its past life
as a rail yard, “is hidden by the railroad and that kind of scary looking underpass” on Florida Street, said Fritz Usinger, with a laugh.
Usinger is president of Fred Usinger Inc., which in 1992 announced plans to buy land from the city Redevelopment Authority — becoming the first business at Florida Yards.
Usinger’s completed its purchase in 1994 and built a 20,000-square-foot distribution center at 303 E. Florida St.
In 2003, the sausage company built a 55,000-square-foot addition, according to the Department of City Development.
Usinger’s has since moved most of its processing operations there from the downtown headquarters at 1030 N. Old World 3rd St., Usinger said. The company bases around 70 percent of its 160 employees at Florida Yards.
Meanwhile, V. Marchese Produce Inc. in 2003 built a 33,000-square-foot facility at Florida Yards. That building now has 80,000 square feet, according to the company.
The produce and dairy products processor and supplier moved to Florida Yards from 613 S. 2nd St. The Walker’s Point building later became the home for Milwaukee Brewing Co. and Central Standard Craft Distillery.
V. Marchese is now buying the last parcel at Florida Yards. The company would pay $1 for the cone-shaped lot south of East National Avenue.
The firm plans to spend $700,000 to $800,000 to create a parking lot, according to the Department of City Development.
That parking lot is needed for the planned expansion of V. Marchese’s facility just north of East National Avenue, at 600 S. Jake Marchese Way.
A company affiliate bought a neighboring former horse stable, at 328 E. National Ave., in 2016 for $425,000, according to state real estate records. That building will be demolished. V. Marchese then plans to expand west to its parking lot and that former stable site, said Josh Weber, chief financial officer.
The project would include a pedestrithe an bridge spanning East National Avenue to connect the parking lot to the company’s expanded facility, according to the city report.
V. Marchese has 276 employees and plans to add 50 to 75 workers with its expansion, Weber said at Thursday’s meeting of the Redevelopment Authority board.
The board approved the land sale, which also needs Common Council approval.
V. Marchese’s expansion is exactly what Lilith Fowler wants for the Harbor District.
“They’re such a great success story,” said Fowler, executive director of Harbor District Inc., the nonprofit group that promotes redevelopment efforts in area.
The 1,000-acre Harbor District is bordered roughly by South 1st Street, the lakefront, the Milwaukee River and Bay Street/Becher Street.
The district’s water and land use plan, approved in February by the Common Council and Mayor Tom Barrett, envisions a dramatic, long-range transformation of the area into housing, offices and other new uses.
Much of the Harbor District is now marked by vacant or underused industrial sites. The largest is the 47-acre former Milwaukee Solvay Coke Co. site, 311 E. Greenfield Ave., which is undergoing an environmental cleanup.
But that area is changing.
One new project is The Cooperage, a renovated building at 818 S. Water St., about one block east of V. Marchese’s future parking lot.
It will house the Boone & Crockett tavern, the food truck Taco Moto, the Milwaukee Pedal Tavern and Brew City Kayak.
The Harbor District plan also calls for using the last Florida Yards parcel to support “existing or future light industrial development,” or provide public green space or green infrastructure.
The planned V. Marchese parking lot, which would include landscaping to manage storm water and beautify the area, checks all those boxes, Fowler said.
The V. Marchese expansion also would finally complete Florida Yards — roughly three decades after that work began.
“That might be a little on the very slow side,” said Fowler, who previously helped lead the redevelopment of Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley.
Meanwhile, urban industrial sites like Florida Yards are starting to draw more attention, Barry said.
In part, that’s because Amazon.com Inc. and other online retailers increasingly need smaller distribution centers in urban areas to make local deliveries, Barry said.
Those so-called “last mile” centers are a key part of providing overnight and same day delivery, he said.
Meanwhile, Usinger’s customers have gradually become more aware of the company’s Florida Yards facility when they stop there to pick up orders.
“Over time, people know we’re down here,” Usinger said.
Tom Daykin can be emailed tdaykin@jrn.com and followed Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.