The developer who renovated the sprawling Pritzlaff Building on West St. Paul Avenue, has sold a Downtown building to Milwaukee School of Engineering at a hefty discount, allowing the school to create the the Dr. Kendall Breunig Center for the Built Environment at 310 E. Knapp St.
Breunig, an MSOE graduate, bought the building in May 2021 for $4.75 million. His Sunset Investors sold it to the school on March 1 for $1,090,500.
The current city assessment values the three-story building, erected in 2001, at $9,275,400.
Breunig has also promised a $2 million gift toward the projected $14 million cost of renovating the building – currently leased to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration services and enforcement field offices – into an academic facility.
MSOE expects to raise the remainder of the cost of renovations via a private fundraising campaign.
Once completed, the 58,429-square-foot building will house MSOE’s Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management (CAECM) Department.
Homeland Security had announced before the sale that it plans to relocate to 310 W. Wisconsin Ave. and has since said that the decision was unrelated to the sale.
“MSOE provided the base for my career in design and construction management, but also specifically my real estate development work,” said Breunig. “I owe my current success to my degree from MSOE, so I am honored to support the university and help other MSOE grads to start successful careers.”
The facility will include an outdoor plaza, indoor commons area, seven laboratories, six classrooms, a student presentation area. There will also be dedicated spaces for collaborations, study and socialization.
Ramlow/Stein Architecture + Interiors is the architect.
According to a spokesperson, the renovation will be completed in phases, with the intention of students and faculty to begin using part of the building in autumn 2024.
The final completion date is dependent on fundraising progress.
The CAECM Department – the third-largest department at MSOE – offers undergraduate programs in architectural engineering, civil engineering and construction management, and graduate programs in architectural engineering and civil engineering.
“Kendall Breunig has transformed commercial development in the Milwaukee area and across Southeastern Wisconsin, building on the skills he honed at MSOE. We are thankful that he is helping MSOE continue its campus improvements,” said MSOE President Dr. John Walz.
“With the Kendall Breunig Center for the Built Environment, MSOE will continue its tradition of educating the next generation of construction leaders who will design and build the future landscape of our city and beyond.”
Breunig, who is an MSOE Regent, graduated from the school with an Associate of Applied Science in Architectural and Building Construction Engineering Technology in 1978 and a bachelor’s degree in the same field in 1979.
He received an M.S. in Civil Engineering from Marquette University in 1987 and was later awarded an Honorary Doctor of Engineering from MSOE in 2017.
Breunig served as a member of the MSOE Corporation before joining the Board of Regents in 2016. He was inducted to MSOE’s Alumni Wall of Distinction in 2021.
Because the building is located within the Park East Redevelopment Plan, which has a moratorium on new tax exempt uses, the nonprofit MSOE – typically exempt from paying property tax – had to come to an agreement with the city.
Last month, the school agreed to a voluntary annual $100,000 payment in lieu of taxes, with an automatic annual 2.5 percent increase across a 10-year deal that can be extended by mutual agreement in five-year increments.
According to media reports, the school can make its payment in the form of public improvements like streetscaping and traffic calming.
MSOE has invested more than $100 million in its Downtown Milwaukee campus over the past six years. In February, MSOE announced it would renovate a 1905 duplex into a new conservatory of music.
It is also currently working on a softball field on Milwaukee and State Streets. A dedication for the so-called Raiders Field is slated for Saturday, May 6.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
