The U.S. Postal Service will build a new, 820,000-square-foot mail distribution and processing center on 64 acres of vacant land at the southwest corner of College Avenue and Pennsylvania Road in Oak Creek.
The project will be announced at noon press conference today by Cobalt Partners, a Milwaukee development firm that is helping the Postal Service purchase and develop the property, said Scott Yauck, principal of the firm.
The new facility will replace the distribution center and mail processing facility at 345 W. St. Paul Ave. in downtown Milwaukee and a warehouse on South Second Street in Milwaukee, said U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Marge Oehlke.
"We've outgrown our existing facility (in downtown Milwaukee)," Oehlke said. "We needed to seek alternative sites. This site will allow us to streamline and modernize our operations."
"The Postal Service undertook an eight- to 10-year search," Yauck said. "They were looking for a site that has proximity to downtown, the airport, the transportation system, that was convenient for employees and was large enough for their facility. And this is it."
With the site selection, about 1,900 postal employees in the mail processing center will move to Oak Creek from Milwaukee.
Yauck would not disclose the sale price of the 64-acre parcel at Pennsylvania and College, nor would he say what architect is creating designs for the Postal Service's new building. Yauck would also not discuss when the Postal Service project might break ground, nor when it might be completed.
"The first step was the identification of the site," he said. "The project will now go through the design and approval process and the schedule of transition (for the Postal Service)."
Cobalt Partners was one of several development firms that was proposing different sites for the distribution and processing center, Yauck said.
"There were competing sites in Racine and Johnson Creek," he said. "The good news is that we can retain (the Postal Service site) in Milwaukee County. It's a win for everybody."
The proposed project would house all mail processing and distribution operations for southeastern Wisconsin, according to Cobalt Partners.
However, the Postal Service will still maintain a presence in downtown Milwaukee, Oehlke said, with a vehicle maintenance facility and a retail post office. In the coming months the Postal Service will decide if those operations will remain at 345 W. St. Paul Ave., or if they will be moved to another downtown site, she said.
The Postal Service leases the space in the downtown Milwaukee building on St. Paul Avenue, which is owned by Menomonee RP LLC, whose registered agent is Jeffrey Santaga of Wauwatosa-based Hanson & Santaga S.C. Santaga could not be reached for comment. The four-story, 941,109-square-foot St. Paul Avenue building used by the Postal Service was constructed in 1967, and has an assessed value of $19.5 million, according to city records. The building is located along the north side of the Menomonee River and is next to the recently redeveloped Milwaukee Intermodal Station, which is used by Amtrak, Greyhound and other bus lines. If the Postal Service vacates the building, it could create a redevelopment opportunity for the property.
Oehlke said the Postal Service plans to abandon the parking lot along the Milwaukee River, and across the river from the Historic Third Ward, where it currently parks trucks and semi-trailers. The property's riverfront location near the Third Ward could make it a prime future development site.

Indianapolis-based Lauth Property Group, the firm hired by the Bradley Center to develop vacant land around the sports and entertainment facility, today unveiled more details about the development plans, including a draft conceptual sketch of the retail/entertainment project.
"We believe this conceptual sketch shows the exciting type of development we hope to build on the site in the coming years." said Larry Evinger, first vice president of retail at Lauth. "We view this project as a destination and a focal point for activity and development in the area."
Lauth's concept includes more than 500,000 square feet of retail space on 12 acres adjacent to the Bradley Center. The multi-level development will include space for major anchor tenants, junior anchors and small shops. It also features a parking garage as well as space for dining and entertainment venues.
Lauth said it plans to develop the site in multiple phases. If market demand warrants, future phases of the project could include high-rise office space, a hotel, and/or residential towers.
If the project is successful, it could also be expanded north into the Park East corridor. To do that, the Bradley Center would have to purchase the Park East parcel from Milwaukee County, which has yet to issue a request for proposals for the block.
The next step for the Bradley Center development project includes generating additional retailer interest and finalizing the development plan, according to Lauth. The company said it hopes to present a more detailed plan to the city in the next year.
The Bradley Center, located at 1001 N. Fourth St. in downtown Milwaukee, owns about six acres of developable land to the north and has some vacant land adjacent to the building at the corner of North Sixth and State streets.
The Bradley Center wants to develop the vacant land to enhance the facility as an entertainment destination and to generate more revenue for its tenants, including the Milwaukee Bucks.

In a new pilot program, Aurora Health Care has opened two retail stores in Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee to better serve patients and to ease their transition from hospital to home.
"Our mission is to design care around the patient," said Susan Buettner, senior vice president of administrative services for Aurora. "We want to create a care experience that is as simple and stress-free as possible, especially when it's time for a patient to leave the hospital. By having retail stores on site, families can pick up anything from a cold compress to a pain medication dispenser and be on their way."
Products related to heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's, diabetes and other medical needs are available at For Your Well Being, a store inside the hospital. Products that are sources of comfort like pillows, music, aromatherapy and books are available, as well. The emphasis is on convenience for patients and family members, allowing them to pick up the products they need to recover and heal at home.
A team of Aurora clinical caregivers helped select the products most beneficial to patients, such as specialized skin-care products for cancer patients, compression stockings, insulin testing kits for diabetes patients, and hand and wrist supports for rehabilitation patients. Items for home use include long-handled brushes, kitchen helpers, and big-button phones. Comfort items such as neck wraps and booties also are offered.
The approximately 2,400-square-foot For Your Well Being is on the first floor of Aurora St. Luke's between the outpatient pharmacy and the 29th Street entrance.
Market Express, on the third-floor Aurora St. Luke's skywalk near the physician office building, is similar to a convenience store. The store, which is about 350 square feet, offers items such as toothbrushes or batteries and also features coffee, juices, sandwiches, salads, snacks and some dairy items.

The Milwaukee Bar Association (MBA) will give its annual Lifetime Achievement Award to Vel Phillips, a community activist, for her accomplishments in law and community service.
Other recipients of the organization's awards this year will include:
Lawyer of the Year Award -Mel Johnson, U.S. Attorney's Office, for his prosecution of the Frank Judge beating civil rights case.
Distinguished Service Award - Vincent Lyles, president of M&I Community Development, for his work in supporting projects and businesses promoting public welfare in the community.
E. Michael McCann Distinguished Public Service Award - Thomas Reed, state public defender in the Milwaukee Criminal Trial Office, for his dedication and passion in the support of justice for indigent persons.
This year's award recipients will be honored at the MBA's 150th annual meeting and luncheon on Tuesday, June 10, at the Italian Conference Center in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.

In what could be a harbinger of things to come, a Wausau company is reacting to record high gasoline prices by paying its employees for their costs to commute to work. Read more in SBT's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com/#news.

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution recently presented the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service to Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan "Bud" Selig and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship to Jeffrey Joerres, chief executive officer of Manpower Inc. To view a photographic slideshow of the event, visit the latest edition of SBT Around Town.

Busy readers of the BizTimes Daily can get a jumpstart on the Memorial Day weekend by reading the OnMilwaukee.com Weekend Preview.

The BizTimes Stock Index lost .05 points to close at 161.21 Thursday, and local stocks sank sharply with the broader market in early morning trading today. The largest local decliners this morning were Kohl's Corp. (down $1.94 to $42.80), Manpower Inc. (down $1.60 to $62.43), Actuant Corp. (down $1.60 to $33.84), Badger Meter Inc. (down $1.57 to $45.30) and Harley-Davidson Inc. (down $1.41 to $37.64). Only a handful of stocks managed to post meager gains this morning, led by Brady Corp. (up 46 cents to $36.39) and Strattec Security Corp. (up 17 cents to $36.30). The BizTimes Stock Index was created by Small Business Times and is monitored by North Shore Bank. The index, which measures the stock values of publicly held companies based in southeastern Wisconsin, is updated daily and can be viewed at www.biztimes.com.