Uptown Crossing
Vibrant Neighborhood
Uptown Crossing is a vibrant, fun neighborhood just west of Downtown and just east of East Wauwatosa. Years ago PATTEE Group purchased a sizeable warehouse off Lisbon Avenue and North Avenue, and our partners thought we might be crazy. The site was missing a large chunk of its roof, something common to our rehab projects, and the basement looked like a swampy warzone. We cannot say enough good things about the superb, sustained support from the City of Milwaukee’s Department of City Development and our Common Council members.
As we finished the project our team moved in to use the front office as our headquarters, and was delighted to be half a block from Town Bank, a vital partner in many of our development projects. We happily leased the warehouse space to a half-dozen companies, including Royal Enfield motorcycles that housed a large number of bikes there, with the understanding that our leases were temporary as we searched for the perfect tenant. We hosted a Newaukee event, and were warmly welcomed to the district.
Our Goal
Is to bring positive attention and employment to neighborhoods all over the Milwaukee area, and after a few years we had intense interest in the space, but nothing that matched perfectly. We had lease terms offered, and folks were ready to write us checks, but it wasn’t the vision we had. Lucky for us, my superb junior partner Brennan Balestrieri connected us with Bittercube, who blew us away with their product and work ethic. Even from the initial walkthroughs, we knew this was the kind of anchor business the area needed.
Bringing dollars in while employing locals, while not displacing residents and gentrifying is our goal. We are able to proudly invest and help fund their build-out, and we could not be happier with the progress on this long horizon project. It is no secret that holding firm and waiting for the correct tenant is vital, and luckily our patience was rewarded. We were too excited to host a fundraiser for Sheriff Earnell Lucas as our capstone event before starting construction for our Bittercube partners.