Wauwatosa-based real estate firm Wangard Partners Inc. has a contract to purchase the former Laacke & Joys property in downtown Milwaukee and is working on plans for a redevelopment project for the site, chairman and chief executive officer Stewart Wangard said.The redevelopment project could include office, retail and restaurant space, Wangard said. The company is marketing the property to potential tenants.The first priority for the project is to restore the historic former Laacke & Joys building, which is a four-story, 64,826-square-foot, 141-year-old structure located at 1433 N. Water St. Wangard said the firm is in talks with multiple potential tenants for the building.The Wangard project could also include new buildings on either side of the former Laacke & Joys building. A warehouse northeast of the building will be demolished to create a site that could accommodate a 200,000-square-foot building, Wangard said.The 6,000-square-foot Peck garage building is located to the southwest of the former Laacke & Joys building. That building could be converted to a restaurant with outdoor seating along the Milwaukee River, Wangard said.Otherwise, the Peck garage building could be demolished and a high rise with perhaps 200,000 to 400,000 square feet of space could be built on the site, Wangard said. However, to build a high-rise there a parking solution would have to be determined, he said.“(Those projects) are reinforcing the desirability of the neighborhood,” he said. “Milwaukee is on a roll. A lot of office users are considering downtown. There is momentum building.”View the full article as recently posted on the BizTimes website.View the full article as recently posted on the Milwaukee Business Journal website.To learn more about the available space, please contact Burton Metz at 414-935-4028 or bmetz@wangard.com.