WANTABLE MOVES IN AT WALKER’S POINT
Subscription-box retailer opens new headquarters, cafe
Wantable Inc.’s new Walker’s Point headquarters has some of the features found in other redeveloped buildings in that area south of downtown Milwaukee.
The fast-growing subscription box apparel retailer has moved its operations into a two-story, 25,000-squarefoot former industrial building at 909 S. Barclay St.
It has the big windows, sturdy concrete pillars and high ceilings that often characterize buildings throughout Walker’s Point, where offices, housing and other new uses are reusing former factories and other obsolete industrial sites.
Wantable’s headquarters also includes an unusual feature: a streetlevel cafe, with its entrance at 123 E. Walker St., that serves as an in-house food service for employees — and a restaurant and tavern for the general public.
The Wantable Cafe will provide free lunch, coffee and tea, as well as drinks after work, for employees, said Chief Operating Officer Tyson Ciepluch.
That provides an advantage in competing for talent, he said.
And, it will double as an events venue and daytime restaurant for the public, said Jeffrey Reinbold, who is operating Wantable Cafe.
“We’re excited to be here,” said Reinbold, who also operates Milwaukee Sail Loft restaurant, 649 E. Erie St.
“It’s going to allow the community to learn about Wantable,” he said.
The new $3.5 million headquarters is literally just around the corner from Wantable’s former offices at 112 E. Mineral St., where the company leased 20,000 square feet.
The new building, which also is in the Harbor District, is owned by Republic Holdings LLC, an investment group operated by Wantable Chief Executive Officer Jalem Getz.
Wantable’s new offices initially will be used by 125 employees — up from 80 office employees when the project was announced in February.
The company’s distribution center near Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport has another 125 employees, up from around 70 workers in early 2020.
Wantable has seen its sales increasing for years as more people turn to online retailers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that trend, Ciepluch said.
The pandemic also means that most Wantable employees are still working remotely “despite the fact we have this beautiful building we are chomping at the bit to show,” he said.
Ciepluch doesn’t yet know when employees will be returning to the headquarters. That depends on the pandemic.
But, even after people are working there, Ciepluch expects most employees to split their time between the offices and remote sites.
“People have gotten used to working
remotely effectively,” he said. “Our business has done well with it.”
And that flexibility creates benefits for both Wantable and its employees, Ciepluch said.
Pre-pandemic, the new offices were designed to eventually accommodate up to around 200 employees.
But with employees splitting their time between the headquarters and their home offices and other remote sites, the building now accommodates up to an estimated 400 people through shared work stations, Ciepluch said.
That reduces the need for Wantable to eventually lease more space for future growth.
Meanwhile, employees enjoy the flexibility of working from home.
That is becoming a key factor in competing for talent, Ciepluch said.
“We’re going to have to offer a great remote work experience,” he said. Getz founded Wantable in 2011. He told the Journal Sentinel in 2018 that the ideal customers for the company’s personal styling service are men and women who have “more money than time.”
The algorithm used to match customers with clothes by Wantable sets the company apart from other services that sell a one-size-fits-all box.
The building which houses Wantable’s new headquarters, constructed in 1929, was previously used by Rockwell Automation Inc. as a service garage.
Its freight elevator was replaced by a passenger elevator. Also, a rooftop patio for employees is to be added in 2021.
And the building’s industrial garage doors have been replaced by garage doors that can be opened during warm weather for Wantable Cafe patrons.
That cafe includes an events venue known as The Wardrobe. It will have capacity for up to 349 people.
Wantable will use the space for employee meetings, Ciepluch said.
Workers also will likely go there to work on their own, or in small groups, while having a coffee or snack, he said.
The company plans to make the space available for entrepreneurs to use, Ciepluch said.
Meanwhile, Reinbold said Wantable Cafe provides additional job opportunities for his Sail Loft staff.
The cafe’s menu includes sandwiches and pastries made at Milwaukee Sail Loft’s nearby kitchen in the Historic Third Ward, according to the tavern license application.
The cafe is to open soon pending final city approvals.
Its planned hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 7 a.m. to midnight on Friday; 10 a.m. to midnight on Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday, the application said.
Wantable Cafe is an unusual feature for a Milwaukee office headquarters.
While some local employers have inhouse food services, most of those operations are not also open to the public.
Wantable Cafe will function as a community gathering space, Ciepluch said.
“We’re a tech company at heart and we want to be a hub for other innovation people to get together for coffee or a glass of wine,” he said.
“It will be awesome for our employees’ development and performance to be around that kind of energy,” Ciepluch said.