Milwaukee roofing firm will move into historic bank

By TOM DAYKIN

USA Today Network

A historic former bank in Walker’s Point is being converted into the headquarters of a multistate roofing contractor that’s relocating there from Milwaukee‘s far south side.

Roofed Right America LLC plans to move its main office this summer from 429 W. Boden St. to 414 W. National Ave., where it will operate with 28 employees, said CEO Adam Brissman.

The company on Feb. 24 applied for a city permit to renovate the the building, last used by BMO Harris Bank. An investment group led by Brissman bought the property in 2023 for $1.5 million.

The building’s renovations, financed in part with federal and state historic preservation tax credits, are to be completed by June, Brissman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Walker’s Point location will provide around 7,000 square feet of office space, Brissman said.

Roofed Right is maintaining its Boden Street location to house its Milwaukee-area roofing operations with around 120 employees, he said. That 22,400-square-foot light industrial building includes around 3,000 square feet of office space.

The company also has operations in New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Colorado, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

Roofed Right has acquired four roofing contractors since partnering with Great Range Capital, a Kansas City-based private equity firm, in early 2023. That includes the October purchase of Eagle Rivet Roof Services, based in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and Waltham, Massachusetts.

“We have been expanding the roofing platform to the point where we needed corporate office space, and this fit the bill nicely,” Brissman said, in an email.

“We looked at many office options but everything in the 3rd Ward lacked parking and was priced higher than what we secured in this gem of a building in Walker’s Point, which includes parking and all the timeless historic attributes,” he said.

The renovation cost estimate is still being determined, Brissman said.

The work will include interior renovations, ornamental plaster repairs, new natural stone flooring, building, a new roof and solar panels, and “historically appropriate finishes,” he said.

The Neoclassical/Beaux Arts-style building was constructed in 1905, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

It housed a Marshall & Ilsley Bank for more than a century before BMO Harris bought Marshall & Ilsley Corp. in 2011.