ASQ Center

Located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee, ASQ Center is an adaptive use of one of the Midwest’s first department stores. Since the store’s opening by Gimbels Brothers in the 1890s, the three-acre (1.2-hectare) site had been occupied by a major department store. With the closing of the most recent department store, Marshall Fields, in 1997 and the slumping retail market in downtown, a new development concept was needed to rescue the deteriorating building. Williams Development Corporation and Irgens Development Partners LLC, teamed up with a local architect and the city to create a successful mixed-use project that includes a 131-room extended stay hotel, 220,000 square feet (20,438 square meters) of office space, and 40,000 square feet (3,716 square meters) of retail space. The redevelopment plan called for preserving an important landmark by rehabilitating the exterior, replacing the interior after demolition, and maintaining the historic property’s connection to Milwaukee’s skywalk system and the Riverwalk.