Milwaukee’s downtown office market is a tale of two worlds. Class A buildings are performing well with steady tenant demand, while Class B and C buildings face a much tougher reality with higher vacancy rates.

Across the downtown office market, vacancy increased slightly during the first quarter of the year, according to data from the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin and REDI CRE.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, total vacancy sat at 19.3%, with the market shedding 57,305 square feet of occupied space during the full year. By the first quarter of 2026, office vacancy slightly increased to 19.4%, but the market absorbed 10,572 square feet of class A office space.

Despite increased vacancy, rental rates have increased due to inflation, said Ned Purtell, principal at Founders 3.

“You would have thought that the rental rates would have gone down,” Purtell said. “And that has not happened at all. It is in fact the opposite.”

There’s hope for more improvement, Purtell said.

The planned conversion of downtown Milwaukee’s 35-story 100 East building, a former office tower at 100 E. Wisconsin Ave., into an apartment complex has benefitted other buildings in the downtown class A market by eliminating a significant amount of excess supply.

Tenants, including Gruber Law Offices and The Marcus Corp., who previously occupied space at 100 East, had to move elsewhere downtown, creating positive absorption in the market.

“That’s the kind of double whammy in good news. We’ve moved tenants out of a building that went back to the bank and we’ve taken vacant space – competitive vacant space – off the market at the same time,” Purtell said.

Other office-to-residence projects in the downtown area include the Third Ward’s Mayer Building, which will convert its remaining office space into 25 apartment units – adding to the 60 units it currently offers.

Moving forward, Purtell said he expects the downtown office market’s recovery to continue, especially as more companies potentially look to relocate their operations into the heart of the city.

In recent years, firms such as Milwaukee Tool, Fiserv and Rite-Hite have shifted offices from suburban campuses to the downtown Milwaukee area.

In one of the city’s most significant corporate moves, Northwestern Mutual is nearing completion of its rebuilt $500 million, 18-story North Office Building and will relocate more than 2,000 employees from its Franklin campus to its downtown Milwaukee headquarters campus.

“There is definitely a trend of some of the suburban corporate users gravitating to downtown or the Third Ward,” Purtell said.

U.S. Bank Center
Address: 777 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Size: 1,146,536 square feet
Height: 42 stories
Vacant space: 67,307 square feet
Vacancy rate: 5.9%
Notable tenants: Baird, U.S. Bank, Foley & Lardner, Deloitte
Assessed value: $191.4 million

411 East Wisconsin Center
Address: 411 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Size: 669,354 square feet
Height: 30 stories
Vacant space: 160,012 square feet
Vacancy rate: 23.9%
Notable tenants: Quarles & Brady, von Briesen & Roper
Assessed value: $114 million

875 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Address: 875 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Size: 235,000 square feet
Height: 8 stories
Vacant space: 63,561 square feet
Vacancy rate: 27%
Notable tenants: Roundy’s, Artisan Partners
Assessed value: $41 million

Chase Tower
Address: 111 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Size: 476,168 square feet
Height: 22 stories
Vacant space: 239,677
Vacancy rate: 50.3%
Notable tenants: JPMorgan Chase Bank; O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing
Assessed value: $24.7 million

Associated Bank River Center
Address: 107-111 E. Kilbourn Ave.
Size: 375,346 square feet
Height: 28 stories
Vacant space: 29,040 square feet
Vacancy rate: 7.7%
Notable tenants: Associated Bank, Marcus Corp., Hupy and Abraham, Laughlin Constable
Assessed value: $67.3 million

330 Kilbourn
Address: 330 E. Kilbourn Ave.
Size: 459,886 square feet
Height: 14 stories
Vacant space: 213,511 square feet
Vacancy rate: 46.4%
Notable tenants: Robertson Ryan Insurance; Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Assessed value: $34.2 million

833 East
Address: 833 E. Michigan St.
Size: 356,510 square feet
Height: 18 stories
Vacant space: 16,118 square feet
Vacancy rate: 4.5%
Notable tenants: Godfrey & Kahn, Colliers, EY, KPMG, PwC, Church Mutual
Assessed value: $91.1 million

R1VER Building 1
Address: 210 W. Becher St.
Size: 202,047 square feet
Height: 8 stories
Vacant space: 95,914
Vacancy rate: 47.5%
Notable tenants: Michels Corp.
Assessed value: $41.4 million

BMO Tower
Address: 790 N. Water St.
Size: 362,203 square feet
Height: 25 stories
Vacant space: 99,836 square feet
Vacancy rate: 27.6%
Notable tenants: BMO, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP,Kahler Slater, Heartland Advisors
Assessed value: $94.7 million

Cathedral Place
Address: 555 E. Wells St.
Size: 200,000 square feet
Height: 19 stories
Vacant space: 64,808 square feet
Vacancy rate: 32.4%
Notable tenants: Johnson Financial Group
Assessed value: $39.2 million

The Huron Building
Address: 511 N. Broadway
Size: 153,000 square feet
Height: 11 stories
Vacant space: 55,246 square feet
Vacancy rate: 36.1%
Notable tenants: Husch Blackwell, Old National Bank
Assessed value: $37.8 million

1433-1475 N. Water St.
Address: 1433-1475 N. Water St.
Size: 114,333 square feet
Height: 5 stories
Vacant space: 0 square feet
Vacancy rate: 0.0%
Notable tenants: Bader Rutter
Assessed value: $24.3 million

EagleKnit Building
Address: 507 S. 2nd St., Milwaukee
Size: 95,000 square feet
Height: 4 stories
Vacant space: 29,511 square feet
Vacancy rate: 31.1%
Notable tenants: Tredo Group, Dan Beyer Architects, Islands of Brilliance
Assessed value: $11 million

Palladium
Address: 1400 N. Water St.
Size: 78,576 square feet
Height: 5 stories
Vacant space: 15,501 square feet
Vacancy rate: 19.7%
Notable tenants: Hammes Co., Miron Construction, The Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation
Assessed value: $15.2 million

Pabst Professional Center
Address: 1036-42 W. Juneau Ave.
Size: 68,371 square feet
Height: 5 stories
Vacant space: 9,488 square feet
Vacancy rate: 13.9%
Notable tenants: Huntington Bank
Assessed value: $7.4 million

Downtown office market snapshot:

Q4 2025
Total vacancy: 19.3%
Year-to-date absorption: -57,305 square feet
Class A vacancy: 17.5%
Year-to-date class A absorption: -8,961 square feet

Q1 2026
Total vacancy: 19.4%
Year-to-date absorption: -9,067 square feet
Class A vacancy: 17.4%
Year-to-date class A absorption: 10,574 square feet