Firm weighs American TV site

Brown Deer negotiating with manufacturer

The former American TV & Appliance building in Brown Deer has been sold to the village Community Development Authority, which is negotiating to resell the property to a Milwaukee-area manufacturer.

That light manufacturing business would use the 80,000-squarefoot building at 6700 W. Brown Deer Road as a second location for its expanding operations, said Nate Piotrowski, village community development director. He declined to identify the business, but said a proposed sale agreement would likely be disclosed within 45 to 60 days.

The authority closed on the previously disclosed plan to buy the building, and its 10-acre lot, for $2.6 million, according to state real estate records posted Thursday. It was sold by American Property Acquisition LLC.

The building was offered for sale last year after American TV went

out of business.

The manufacturing business planned for the property would not have late night hours or a lot of truck deliveries, Piotrowski said. He said it would have up to 20 employees at the building.

“We think it would be a good fit there, and not be disruptive to the neighborhood,” Piotrowski said. The business also would reduce the village’s dependence on retail uses on W. Brown Deer Road, he said.

The village’s proposed sale of the building, which would need authority and Village Board approval, would be contingent on the proposed manufacturer receiving board zoning approval, Piotrowski said.

The authority also is planning to sell a portion of the parking lot to a proposed retail user for a separate new building, Piotrowski said. He declined to comment further on that pending sale.

Village officials had worked with developer John Schlueter, who operates Front Line Commercial Real Estate LLC, to find new uses for the vacant building

Schlueter’s $7.2 million bid to buy the former American TV stores in Pewaukee and Brown Deer, as well as 19 acres of vacant land in Oak Creek, was approved in April through a court-supervised receivership case.

The Village Board had previously agreed to buy the Brown Deer property before Schlueter’s bid was disclosed because of concerns the property could be sold to a speculator who wouldn’t have moved promptly to redevelop the site.

Piotrowski said the village decided this week to proceed with buying the property because officials thought the manufacturer was a strong prospect. He said Schlueter was interested in looking for other prospective buyers or tenants.

Schlueter declined to comment.

Front Line is leasing the rear portion of the former American TV building in Pewaukee to electric gocart track operator SPA Indoor Speedway LLC. That business is to open May 1, Schlueter said.

Also, Schlueter is working with three retail tenants for the remaining 50,000 square feet of the front portion of that building, at W229-N1400 Westwood Drive.