‘A clean, professional atmosphere’
Renovations turn sites into affordable spaces for entrepreneurs, startups
After retiring from his 30-year job as a UPS driver, Eric Brown decided to become a real estate investor.
His first project: renovating an older building in Milwaukee’s Uptown Crossing neighborhood and filling it with small businesses.
Now, Brown is doing a similar development — this time in a different central city neighborhood that badly needs jobs and investment.
As with his first project, he wants to provide affordable space for entrepreneurs —including startup businesses.
Along with being sound investments, Brown said his buildings help business operators “get a sense of pride about themselves, and empowerment.”
This latest project involves buying and remodeling a one-story, 7,900square-foot office building, 3658-3660 N. Teutonia Ave. Built in 1966, it was owned for several years by Columbia Savings and Loan.
Brown plans to renovate the vacant building into an entrepreneur incubator hub with 20 micro suites.
Milwaukee Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit business lender, in December approved a $166,000 loan for the $186,000 development.
Those expenses include $115,000 to buy the building and $65,400 for renovations, according to MEDC.
Brown plans to complete his purchase of the building by mid-January, and start renovations shortly thereafter.
Eric Brown renovated a building at 4738 W. Lisbon Ave. to house several hairstylists on its second floor. A restaurant is planned for the first floor.
He hopes to have the spaces available for rent by late spring.
“I want a diversity of businesses,” he said.
Brown believes it won’t be difficult to find renters. News accounts of his development plans have already prompted inquiries from prospective tenants — including startups.
“They don’t want to work out of their homes,” he said. “They want to look professional.”
Brown has done this type of project before.
In September 2018, his Eric Brown Enterprises LLC bought a two-story, 8,000-square-foot building at 47344740
W. Lisbon Ave. for $258,900, according to city assessment records.
Brown and his wife, Debbie, financed the purchase mainly with their savings.
The building, constructed in 1926, was generally in good shape, he said, but needed a lot of cosmetic improvements.
So, Brown, doing most of the work himself, added new lighting and flooring, and gave it a fresh paint job.
Within three months he was renting out small office suites on the second floor.
Those 12 spaces are now occupied mainly by barbers, hairstylists, nail techs and other personal service
providers — which is modeled on similar developments in Atlanta, Brown said.
Some of the offices are as small as 200 to 300 square feet.
“There are a lot of people who want to be in a clean, professional atmosphere,” Brown said.
That includes Chelsea Goodman, who just got her nail tech license and is starting a new business, Beauty and Nails, at the building.
Goodman said the Uptown Crossing location on busy Lisbon Avenue will draw a lot of foot traffic.
Also, she likes being in the same location as hairstylists and other personal services providers.
“It’s a good environment for everybody,” Goodman said. “We all feed off each other.”
‘A diverse area’
Meanwhile, the building has benefited from other investments in the neighborhood.
That includes Bittercube Bar & Bazaar, which opened its new bitters making operation and bar at 4828 W. Lisbon Ave. in October 2018.
Town Bank in 2017 opened a branch at 4732 W. Lisbon Ave.
Also, Battlebox Studios gaming store, at 5431 W. Lisbon Ave., in January 2020 opened an adjacent gaming lounge. But that business has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic also has delayed plans by Eric and Debbie Brown for opening a restaurant on the building’s ground floor.
It will be named Ruby J’s, a tribute to Debbie Brown’s mother, Ruby Jamison.
Ruby J’s will offer soul food, such as smothered pork chops, as well as Friday fish fries, Tuesday taco nights and other items.
“We want to appeal to the masses,” Brown said. “This is a diverse area.”
With the pandemic forcing restaurants to operate with greatly reduced capacity, Ruby J’s will start with just carry-out and delivery before eventually expanding to sitdown dining.
Brown doesn’t know when that will be. It’s not easy obtaining financing for restaurants given the industry’s travails.
Still, because Brown owns the building, and has adequate cash flow from his second-floor tenants, he’s in no rush to open Ruby J’s.
The Browns have never run a restaurant.
But they’re getting advice from Bennie and Angela Smith, whose Daddy’s Soul Food & Grille, 754 N. 27th St., last fall doubled its space.
“They’re very driven,” said Angela Smith.
“Whenever (Eric Brown) puts his mind to do something,” she said, “he always sees it through.”
Smith said Brown’s business ventures involve helping others.
Brown, 60, started looking at commercial real estate investments after retiring in 2012 from UPS.
He also has been pastor of of Haven of Hope International Ministries Inc., 4040 W. Fond du Lac Ave., for 14 years.
Brown said he long held an entrepreneurial spirit “before I found God.”
But his Christian faith has played a role in his drive to develop the business.
“That increased it,” Brown said.