Orchard Street Press to buy its building, add jobs
T-shirt maker moved to St. Francis in 2015
A local company that designs logo-printed T-shirts for rock bands, restaurants and other customers is buying its building and adding jobs.
Orchard Street Press LLC moved from Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood to St. Francis nearly two years ago because it needed more space.
Black Swan Investments LLC, owned by Orchard Street Press co-owner Whitney Teska, is now buying the 12,000square-foot building at 4188 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. for $400,000, according to Milwaukee Economic Development Corp.
Black Swan is seeking a $115,000 loan from MEDC, a nonprofit business lender, to help finance the purchase. Waukesha State Bank is the primary lender.
Orchard Street Press has 17 full-time employees and plans to add around eight more employees over the next two years, according to MEDC.
The business is owned by Teska and his wife, Julie.
The couple launched their business in 2008 in the basement of a house they were renting on E. Orchard St., in Walker’s Point.
Orchard Street Press was financed with $7,500 it won through a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee business plan competition for students and recent alumni.
Whitney Teska learned to print T-shirts as a teenage band member in Racine, and the business started out designing shirts for local rock bands.
The company also supplies screen-printed shirts and other apparel to dozens of area restaurants, bars and other businesses, as well as nonprofit groups staging festivals and fundraising events.
The Teskas moved Orchard Street Press to a 4,000-squarefoot building at 815 S. 9th St. before relocating to St. Francis in July 2015.
MEDC in 2015 approved a $171,000 loan to help finance $190,000 of improvements Orchard Street Press made at the Kinnickinnic Ave. building.
The latest loan request will be reviewed by MEDC’s Loan and Finance Committee on Tuesday.