A joint real estate fund formed by commercial mortgage lending specialists, Innovative Capital Advisors (ICA), and Chicago-based HSA Commercial Real Estate, a full-service real estate firm, has closed on the acquisition of the 114,000-square-foot Wauwatosa Business Plaza industrial building located at 3031 North 114th Street, Wauwatosa, Wis. The high-clear warehouse facility is adjacent to the former Schwaab stamp factory which was purchased by the same partnership earlier this year.

Both the former Schwaab property and the Wauwatosa Business Plaza building are located immediately east of a full interchange with Highway 45 at Burleigh Street, and they are at a lighted intersection with The Mayfair Collection, a 270,000-square-foot retail shopping center anchored by Nordstrom Rack and Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH. The Mayfair Collection’s construction consisted of adaptively repurposing functionally obsolete warehouse buildings along Highway 45 into new, contemporary retail environments. The project’s second phase will be anchored by Whole Foods Market, which will open February 1, 2016 in a converted warehouse building at the northeast corner of Burleigh Street and 112th Street.

The Wauwatosa Business Plaza is currently approximately 50 percent occupied by warehousing tenants including a Habitat for Humanity ReStore donation center and resale shop. Given the existing tenancies at the property, HSA Commercial and ICA do not have any immediate redevelopment plans.

“With the success of The Mayfair Collection and the continued transformation of Burleigh Street from a lifeless industrial corridor to a vibrant mixed-use district, our newly-acquired properties represent strategically significant touchpoints that will define perceptions of this area for visitors and future residents,” said Tim Blum, executive vice president with HSA Commercial. “For that reason, we need to ensure that these assets are managed over the long-term such that they contribute to the City’s ambitious vision for The District.”

In June 2013, a separate joint venture between ICA and HSA Commercial acquired Plaza 173, a 92,000-square-foot retail shopping center in neighboring Brookfield, Wis., where the partnership plans to break ground in August on a full-scale redevelopment anchored by Fresh Thyme Farmers Market.
James T. Barry III, J.D, CCIM, Kevin Barry, CCIM, and David Barry, CCIM, SIOR of DTZ Barry represented the seller of the Wauwatosa Building Plaza in the sale transaction.