Farbman Group Buys Chase Tower

An affiliate of Southfield, Michigan-based NAI Farbman Group, an investment group that operates commercial properties throughout the Midwest, has purchased the Chase Tower in downtown Milwaukee for $30.5 million. The office tower was sold by Breof Bank Midwest LLC, an affiliate of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc.; "Breof" stands for Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Fund. According to a Milwaukee Business Journal report, Farbman has been eying the property for several years now, which Brookfield placed on the market in October 2014.

The property was officially purchased by 111 W. Wisconsin Property Owner LLC, which is registered to NAI Farbman Group. Cushman & Wakefield's Chicago office marketed the building for Brookfield Asset Management, which bought the office tower in 2006 at the peak of the commercial real estate market for $45.8 million. The sale includes the connected parking structure at 543 N. Water St. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The new owners have plans to upgrade Chase Tower's first and second floor commons areas and adding amenities. "We're going to take its natural bones and make it better," said Andrew Farbman, chief executive officer of NAI Farbman Group. "There is a lot to draw from and the downtown location is fantastic. There is some access to public transportation now, and Milwaukee is growing in that area, plus the residential footprint in the Third and Fifth wards is something we're really fired up about."

Chase Tower, one of downtown Milwaukee's largest office buildings, was designed by Harrison & Abramovitz and completed in 1961. The 22-story office building was originally known as the Marine Plaza (which was the largest office building in Milwaukee until 1973 U.S. Bank Center build), and later as Bank One Plaza until their merger with Chase. The building was 86% leased at the time of sale, with major tenants including JPMorgan Chase, Infinity Healthcare, WUWM Public Radio and the law firm of O'Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing.

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