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Former Tecumseh Engine plant in Grafton to be renovated
By Rick Barrett of the Journal Sentinel
A Milwaukee-based commercial real estate firm has acquired a 50% interest in the former Tecumseh Products Co. manufacturing plant in Grafton and says it plans to renovate the 341,000-square-foot building.
Phoenix Investors LLC says the renovation will begin almost immediately and that it expects to lease out the building to tenants.
The firm said it paid about $900,000 for its interest in the property from BLWL LLC in Janesville.
Years ago, the manufacturing plant employed several hundred people.
"Historically it served as an office, manufacturing and distribution facility for Tecumseh Products Company," Phoenix said.
Tecumseh closed the facility in 2009, although much of the work had already been moved elsewhere. The Michigan-based company also closed factories in Sheboygan Falls and New Holstein.
Now, the building on 26 acres at 900 North St., will undergo renovation for prospective tenants, said Phoenix managing director David Marks.
The building is well suited for manufacturing or use as a distribution center, according to Marks, and it could have multiple tenants.
"Generally, with properties this size, we usually don't deal with too many smaller tenants. We usually are dealing with tenants requiring 50,000 square feet and more," he said.
"We are very satisfied, from preliminary interest we have received in the property, that it will fill up quickly," he added.
Phoenix has a similar building, in Sheboygan, that was renovated and leased to multiple tenants including Kohler Co. and Georgia Pacific Co.
"We feel very strongly about the industrial market as a whole. We see very little industrial vacancy, and we don't see that changing in any dramatic fashion," Marks said.
"There are new buildings going up in the Racine and Kenosha corridor where there's a lot of demand. And in other parts of the state, there's still a lot of demand and not a lot of new construction," he added.
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