An investors group organized by Lighthouse Development Co. will get a $2.25-million bridge loan from Milwaukee Economic Development Corp., a city-affiliated business lending agency, under a recommendation made Tuesday, March 10.
Lighthouse will use the two-year loan to help finance its conversion of an industrial building at 201 E. Pittsburgh Ave., in the Walker’s Point area, into offices, apartments and retail space, according to the agency. Its Loan and Finance Committee approved the loan.
The project also has $17.6 million from other financing sources, including Johnson Bank.
It was announced in September that Fullhouse, a firm that develops commercial Web sites and other interactive marketing tools, will move in July from 207 N. Milwaukee St. in the Historic Third Ward to 23,500 square feet at 201 E. Pittsburgh Ave.
Also, Columbia Sportswear is leasing around 7,000 square feet for a back office, Lighthouse co-owner Brett Grasse said.
Once renovations are completed, the four-story building will have around 11,000 square feet of first-floor retail space, 35,000 square feet of offices and 40 apartments.
It will be next to a former industrial building at 235 E. Pittsburgh Ave. that Lighthouse is converting into the 55-unit Bridgeview apartments. Those apartments will be completed within two to four months, Grasse said.
Lighthouse is calling the redeveloped buildings South Water Works.
The buildings once housed Transpak Corp. before it moved to Franklin Business Park.
(Story by Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel)
