It’s no surprise that the Milwaukee office market faces challenges: Cities across the country are struggling with high office vacancies and obsolete buildings. The Milwaukee market is no different. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t signs of hope in this city’s office sector.
Consider JLL‘s second quarter 2025 Milwaukee office report. According to JLL, the Milwaukee CBD office market saw positive net absorption in the second quarter of the year, driven by 59,000 square feet of positive absorption in Class-A properties.
Yes, the flight to quality is real in Milwaukee’s CBD office market, as a growing number of companies seek less office space but space of a higher quality.
The office sector in Milwaukee’s CBD saw more than 30,000 square feet of positive net absorption overall during the second quarter. That’s in sharp contrast to the negative 79,000 square feet of net absorption racked up by the Milwaukee suburbs.
The Milwaukee office market overall finished the second quarter with negative 48,890 square feet of negative absorption. On a more positive note, rent growth remained positive, increasing 1% in the second quarter of the year when compared to the first.
JLL cited Enerpac’s relocation of its headquarters from Menomonee Falls in Milwaukee’s Northwest submarket to the area’s Downtown West submarket as one of the bigger office moves of the second quarter. Enerpac is now occupying about 56,000 square feet in the downtown Milwaukee area. It’s just the latest business to recognize the advantages of CBD presence, JLL said.
JLL predicted that office leasing activity in the Milwaukee area is expected to increase in the second half of the year, supported by more than 585,000 square feet of active tenant requirements currently in the market. JLL also reported that ongoing redevelopment initiatives are expected to continue to decrease office inventory.
During the first two quarters of 2025, the Milwaukee office market saw negative 132,251 square feet of net absorption. The total vacancy rate for this sector stood at 24.2% as of the end of the second quarter.
