Dan Rosenfeld, principal at Mid-America Real Estate — Wisconsin, said that the city’s retail market is in the middle of a solid recovery period. And Rosenfeld should know: His company focuses on retail, and is one of the strongest segment players in the Milwaukee area.
The activity in the city backs up Rosenfeld’s statement: A new Macy’s has already opened in Milwaukee. A new Von Maur department store is scheduled to open in 2015 and a Nordstrom is scheduled to open that year, too.
“This is certainly welcome news for the retail market,” Rosenfeld said.
And these big department stores aren’t the only new retailers to hit the Milwaukee area. For instance, HSA Commercial began construction earlier this year on The Mayfair Collection, a mixed-use development in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa. Construction crews will turn functionally obsolete warehouse buildings into retail centers. Nordstrom Rack and Dick’s Sporting Goods have already committed to the development.
“Retailers are looking at the Milwaukee market and seeing the additional market share they can gain,” Rosenfeld said. “We are seeing a lot of grocer activity. The grocers seem to think there is additional capacity for them in the Milwaukee market. This is creating ground-up development and a lot of small-shop development on the periphery of the market.”
Rosenfeld said that the Milwaukee area was fortunate in that it never did struggle with a large number of vacant big-box stores in the retail market. And those boxes that were vacated have been steadily back-filled.
“On the retail front, Milwaukee is strong,” Rosenfeld said.
