American Family Insurance plans downtown Milwaukee office building.
American Family Insurance will open an office building housing “high-tech type jobs” in downtown Milwaukee, the company’s leader said Tuesday.
Jack Salzwedel, American Family Insurance chair and chief executive officer, made the revelation during a news conference called at Miller Park to announce that the insurer would replace Miller Brewing as the naming rights sponsor for the Milwaukee Brewers stadium in 2021.
The office building will mark the first time that American Family has had employees in Milwaukee, Salzwedel said.
The location and other details, including the number of jobs and whether the facility would be new construction or an existing building, are being worked out, he said.
“We are in the early process of identifying possible locations and determining if we want to build, or acquire or lease and renovate an existing space,” American Family spokesman Ken Muth said.
Commercial real estate sources said American Family has been looking for around 100,000 square feet on downtown’s west side.
Office buildings in that area include The Avenue, the new name for the redeveloping Grand Avenue mall; Hub 640, the former offices of Bon Ton Stores Inc., and 310W, formerly known as Reuss Federal Plaza.
Also, the area’s office development sites include land in the Park East corridor as well as parcels further south, in the Reed Street Yards business park, in Walker’s Point.
American Family has operated a regional claims office in the city of Pewaukee, overlooking I-94 at W236 N1402 Busse Road, since about 2006. That three-story, 75,000-square-foot building added employees in 2012 after the company closed some claims offices in Wisconsin and other states, and consolidated operations at larger locations.