Husch Blackwell moving into Huron Building in downtown Milwaukee

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Tom Daykin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Downtown Milwaukee’s newest office building is finished and will soon welcome its anchor tenant — but won’t be fully occupied because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Work is finishing up at the 11-story, 163,000-square-foot Huron Building, 511 N. Broadway, just north of the Historic Third Ward. The developer of the project, J. Jeffers & Co., opened the building Monday for a tour by news media outlets.

The Huron Building is anchored by the Husch Blackwell law firm, which is leasing 71,000 square feet on the top three floors. The lease is for a term of 15½ years.

The new offices include natural light, a wellness room, video-conference rooms and ergonomic office furniture. Husch Blackwell plans to begin moving its operations to the Huron Building during the last weekend of October, said Jack Enea, Milwaukee office managing partner.

The firm, which has 168 attorneys and staffers, now has its offices at Cathedral Place, 555 E. Wells St. But most of Husch Blackwell’s attorneys are still working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic, Enea said.

Only about 30% of the attorneys at the firm have permission to work from the office, he said. Husch Blackwell will maintain those ratios through the end of 2020 and reassess them for the first quarter of 2021, Enea said.

The firm inherited its current location in 2016 when it merged with Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek. Cathedral Place opened in 2003.

The 11-story Huron Building includes private terraces with views of downtown and the neighboring Historic Third Ward. The Huron Building’s only other announced tenant is Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar.

That Asheville, North Carolina-based restaurant chain, specializing in Southern food, announced in February it is leasing 5,000 square feet on the ground floor. Tupelo Honey is scheduled to open its restaurant in spring 2021.

The $50 million Huron Building was initially known as the Broadway Connection development when Husch Blackwell was announced as its anchor tenant in 2018. The building’s lower floors have a 240-space parking garage, with 75,173 square feet of office space on the sixth, seventh and eighth floors, according to listing broker Founders 3 Real Estate Services.

Stevens Construction Corp. is the construction manager, and Engberg Anderson Architects is the project architect.

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