» Cullen move:

Firm to be located in Fortress Building

Construction management firm J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc. plans to move its area office to downtown Milwaukee from Brookfield.

Construction management firm J.P. Cullen & Sons Inc. is moving its area office to downtown Milwaukee from Brookfield.

Cullen plans to move in April to the Milwaukee Fortress Building, 100 E. Pleasant St., said Larry Rocole, vice president of the company’s Milwaukee division. The Janesville-based firm has operated a Milwaukee-area office at 13040 W. Lisbon Road since 1998.

Cullen is the general contractor on a project led by Madison-based Alexander & Co. to convert the six-story Fortress Building into 132 apartments and 24,000 square feet of commercial space.

That work is scheduled to start in October, and Cullen plans to lease around half of the lower-level commercial space, Rocole said.

The entire $43 million project is to be completed by December 2018.

About 40 to 50 people will be based at the downtown office. It will have about double the space of the Brookfield office.

Rocole said he has long considered moving the office to downtown Milwaukee. The increase in downtown-area construction projects in recent years helped propel the move, he said.

“You want to be in the center of activity,” Rocole said.

Cullen’s recent projects include the $31 million Milwaukee Bucks training center, which opened in August at 1201 N. 6th St.

The firm also is working on the $10 million Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin McKinley Health Center, which is next to the Bucks training center at 601 W. McKinley Ave. It will be done in October.

The Fortress Building was constructed in 1892 for the F. Mayer Boot and Shoe Co. The building has more recently been used for offices and livework studios, but much of it is vacant.

Its financing includes state and federal historic preservation tax credits.