United Properties Sells Milwaukee-Area Shopping Center

The property was 62 percent leased at the time of sale.

Silvernail Plaza
Silvernail Plaza previously traded in 2001. Image courtesy of Mid-America Real Estate Corp.

Essential Growth Properties has purchased Silvernail Plaza, a 116,135-square-foot, grocery-anchored shopping center in Pewaukee, Wis. The asset changed hands for $16.4 million, as reported by BizTimes.

United Properties sold the property in a transaction brokered by Mid-America Real Estate Corp. At the time of the sale, the retail center was 62 percent leased.

The seller had acquired Silvernail Plaza for $9.4 million back in 2001, according to CommercialEdge data. In 2018, the property became subject to a $10.5 million loan provided by PNC Bank.


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Serving the Milwaukee suburbs of Pewaukee and Waukesha, Silvernail Plaza has a diverse mix of retailers such as Metro Market and Dollar Tree, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Firestone, Hallmark Cards, Cost Cutters, The UPS Store and T-Mobile.

Located at 2100 Silvernail Road, the shopping center is near Interstate 94, providing access to downtown Milwaukee which is some 20 miles east. The property is also adjacent to Waukesha County Airport.

Mid-America Principals Rick Drogosz and Dan Rosenfeld, along with Senior Vice President & Principal Scott Satula, represented the seller in the transaction.

Retail gains in the Midwest

Milwaukee’s retail market recorded 132,530 square feet of net absorption in the first quarter of 2024, according to a recent Cushman & Wakefield report. The overall vacancy rate was 6.9 percent, while the leasing activity was robust, with a total of 37 transactions comprising 175,656 square feet signed in the first three months of the year.

One large recent retail deal in the Midwest was Core Acquisition’s $34.2 million purchase of Rice Lake Square. The 251,584-square-foot asset is in suburban Chicago, and Mid-America Real Estate Corp. brokered this transaction as well.