Milwaukee restaurateur and real estate developer/investor John “Johnny V” Vassallo and a partner, Milwaukee-based Arteaga Construction president Tony Arteaga, have purchased an office building in the Honey Creek Corporate Center complex on Milwaukee’s west side for about $2.5 million, according to state records.
That’s well below the assessed value for the building, which is about $16.2 million, according to city records, and well below the $17.25 million sale price for the building in 2016.
Located at 125 S. 84th St., the four-story 164,825-square-foot building sits on a 7.9-acre site at Honey Creek Corporate Center, a complex of four similarly-sized office buildings. The 125 S. 84th St. building is known as Honey Creek I.
Built in the 1990s, the buildings in the Honey Creek Corporate Center have faced a significant amount of distress in recent years. The previous owner of the 125 S. 84th St. building, an affiliate of Galveston, Texas-based American National Insurance Company, which sold the building for Vassallo and Arteaga, last year faced several lawsuits from contractors and subcontractors who claimed they were owed about $700,000. In an interview today with BizTimes, Vassallo said he was uncertain of the status of those lawsuits, but said he and Arteaga acquired the building with clear title.
The building at 135 N. 84th St., known as Honey Creek III, was sold last year at a sheriff’s sale after a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge issued a $12.2 million foreclosure judgement against the building’s previous owner in 2024. In September of 2025 it was sold at the sheriff’s sale for $8.4 million to an affiliate of the previous building owner’s lender, Miami-based Rialto Capital Advisors.
In 2017, the Honey Creek II building was sold in a sheriff’s sale for $9 million to a Dallas-based private equity firm.
Johnny Vassallo
Vassallo said he and Arteaga were excited to acquire the Honey Creek I building at such a low price and are optimistic that they can turn around the building’s performance.
The building currently has an occupancy rate of only 40%, Vassallo said. Tenants include UnitedHealthcare, RHM Staffing Solutions and The MiWealth Group.
Vassallo said he and Arteaga feel the west side location and ample parking at Honey Creek Corporate Center make the building they have purchased an attractive opportunity with upside.
“We like the market, we like Milwaukee,” Vassallo said. “It seemed like a good opportunity. There’s some really nice leftover buildouts in it. Parking’s great. We have underground parking. The campus is great. We really like the location, especially with the freeway being torn up for the next few years. We think that it’s a great location for people that may not want to go all the way downtown. We’re super happy with it. We got it at a low basis. We plan on filling the building.”
The office real estate market in general has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic with lower demand for office space as more people are still working from home. That has caused distress for many office buildings, but also likely contributed to the opportunity for Vassallo and Arteaga to acquire the Honey Creek building at such a low price. Vassallo expressed optimism that the Honey Creek building can succeed in the post-pandemic landscape.
“When there’s a basis reset, you just have to look at things differently,” Vassallo said. “My opinion is there will still be absorption of people wanting office space. Maybe that space amount is 70% of what it was in 2019 but if it grew 2% a year, it’s still growing.”
“Our capex will be high because we’re not full,” he said. “But we have good tenants. I do think that there is room for us to make great improvements.”
Vassallo said he and Arteaga plan to invest $500,000 to $1 million in building upgrades, not including tenant improvements.
“We’ll be fixing the doors and the entryway. The entry, we’re going to upgrade that to A space and redo the bathrooms, and some amenity space. We’re going to add a gym. So I think we’re going to try to give people an experience that would be much closer to (higher class office) buildings that are still full,” Vassallo said.
Parking and location are key assets for the building, he said.
“It’s nice to be in an area where there is ample parking, and access to the freeway,” Vassallo said. “While being downtown is awesome, sometimes being a little bit outside of downtown and saving 10 to 15 minutes on your drive each way is helpful.”
Vassallo is also part of a group that is redeveloping the 37-story 100 East office tower in downtown Milwaukee into 373 apartments. Demolition work for that $186 million project began shortly after financing for the project closed in May. The project is expected to be complete in early 2028. Financing for the project includes $16.6 million in tax incremental financing from the city of Milwaukee, historic tax credits, developer equity and a loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Vassallo also is in the process of buying the 23-story, 395,182-square-foot One Moody Plaza, the tallest office tower in downtown Galveston, Texas, with plans to convert it into an apartment building or hotel. He was the winning bidder for the building in a recent online auction and plans to close on the purchase in August. Just like with the Honey Creek building in Milwaukee, the Galveston building is also being sold by American National Insurance Co. Vassallo told The Daily News in Galveston that his group bid $3.8 million for One Moody Plaza, which is well below its assessed value.
Vassallo is also the owner of several restaurants: Mo’s A Place for Steaks in downtown Milwaukee and Mo’s Irish Pub, located in downtown Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, and Houston.
Vassallo was part of a group that planned to build a 28-story apartment tower in Wauwatosa, across the street from Mo’s Irish Pub, at the corner of Mayfair and Bluemound roads. Neighbors objected to the project and plans were modified, scaling the height back to 20 stories. But Vassallo’s group eventually dropped plans for the project in 2023 as neighborhood opposition remained.
He is also part of a group that has planned an apartment development with more than 350 units for another Wauwatosa site on Bluemound Road.
