05/05/2022

Tom Daykin, reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Development firm Irgens Partners LLC will move its headquarters from downtown Milwaukee to help launch a new business park it’s developing in Wauwatosa. 

The firm and its 55 employees will use 16,000 square feet at the 70,000-square-foot, two-story Innovation One building— the first building Irgens plans to develop on 25 acres north of West Watertown Plank Road and east of Interstate 41.

Irgens is now at its 833 East building, 833 E. Michigan St.

The move will accommodate increased demand from other businesses for space at 833 East while helping kick off the new Innovation Campus business park, said Mark Igens, the firm’s chief executive officer.

Innovation One, which includes a 633-stall parking structure, will be completed by February at 1401 Discovery Parkway.

The firm will keep a downtown Milwaukee satellite office at its BMO Tower office tower, 790 N. Water St.

Along with Innovation One, Irgens is seeking tenants for a second building, the 178,000 SF, six-story Innovation Overlook. The firm also is marketing a 9-acre corporate or regional headquarters site at Innovation Campus.

The firm’s executives are confident they will promptly lease up Innovation One despite a growing trend for companies to allow employees more flexibility to work remotely, said Tom Irgens, executive vice president.

The firm’s new Brookfield office building, the 186,000-square-foot, six-story Golf Parkway Corporate Center, is 85% leased with another pending lease two months prior to its construction completion, Tom Irgens said.

Golf Parkway is at The Corridor mixed-use development, which is between I-94 and West Blue Mound Road, west of Calhoun Road. It will be anchored by Milliman Inc., an international actuarial and consulting firm.

“Yes, we are aware of the changes employers are navigating but have found our occupiers are reimagining their workplace in our projects,” he said.