Former Boston Store, Bon-Ton HQ ready for revival

Less than a year after The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. shut down its operations, its former headquarters building and Boston Store in downtown Milwaukee has been cleared and renovated, and is ready for new retailers and businesses. 

This marks the first time the roughly century-old commercial building would house anything other than the operations of Bon-Ton or its predecessor companies. In a matter of good timing for Chicago developer North Wells Capital, it is putting the speculative investment into the project at the same time the neighborhood around its building is the most active market in downtown Milwaukee. 

See the attached slideshow for a tour through the building, dubbed Hub640, where contractors are putting the finishing touches on new commons areas, and preparing the former Boston Store and Bon-Ton office space for renovations for future tenants. 

The surrounding activity is generating interest, said Tony Lindsay, principal at North Wells Capital. Westown is seeing the largest commercial investments in downtown Milwaukee right now, aside from the BMO Tower east of the river. Projects in the pipeline include a $28 million extension of the streetcar to Hub640’s doorstep at Vel R. Phillips and West Wisconsin avenues. The city also plans a $5 million plaza on about a third of its parking lot across the street.

The streetcar means Hub640 is bordered on three sides by major projects. The expansion of the convention center remains under discussion, and Lindsay said the upcoming Democratic National Convention in July 2020 means Hub640 will be in the background of photos with a national exposure. 

The blue 310W office building connected via a skywalk to Hub640 also is being renovated by a different developer. To the east, contractors are preparing the former Shops of Grand Avenue for conversion into a food hall and office space. That work is visible through the glass doors that formerly separated the Hub640’s Boston Store space from the Grand Avenue.

“Historically, Westown has been that neighborhood that has been up-and-coming for a long time,” Lindsay said. “I do feel it has kind of arrived.”

There’s about 67,000 total square feet of retail space on the first floor, and a prospective tenant is in lease talks for about two-thirds of that space, Lindsay said. The company would fill the building corner at Wisconsin and Vel R. Phillips avenues, Lindsay said. It’s rare the downtown market has a single retailer in talks to fill 40,000 square feet. 

“We’ve had some positive conversations with a retailer, and we’re anxiously awaiting when we can announce it,” Lindsay said. “The attraction we’ve gotten to that hard corner has been huge, and I believe that capturing that user here will entice more people to come down to Michigan (Street) as well.”

If the lease deal comes through, the remaining retail space would be on the southern portion of the building facing Michigan Street.

There’s about 230,000 square feet of office space on the upper floors, and Lindsay is working with local brokers from JLL to fill that space. They are highlighting the block-long building’s large floor plates, which offer 57,000 square feet on a single story.

“We’ve seen it as a success in Chicago with conversion of these old big-box retailers,” he said. “The risk-reward here is there is no doubt there are less of those large office users in Milwaukee than other markets that we’ve been in, but there’s also fewer buildings that offer that size of space for them.”

The company has been searching for a larger tenant that could fill 50,000 to 100,000 square feet which, as Lindsay noted, is relatively rare in Milwaukee. North Wells also will pursue more smaller users in the 15,000- to 30,000-square-foot range, he said. 

“There’s more of those out there, but we’re still optimistic that we’ll land those larger users,” Lindsay said. “If there’s people out there looking, the Hub’s on their list. That’s very encouraging to us.”

Engineering firm Graef, the anchor tenant for the Grand Avenue’s office space, toured Hub640, for example. They’ve also shown space for the DNC offices, but the convention organizers need space sooner than Hub640 would be move-in ready.

The project architect is Milwaukee-based Engberg Anderson Architects. Kelly Construction & Design LLC in Milwaukee is the general contractor. 

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