The historic 15-story Wells Building was Milwaukee's first skyscraper, completed in 1901. The building features classic architectural details of the period, including a stunning white Italian marble lobby and grand staircase, detailed domed mosaics, and a decorative terra cotta exterior with brass finishes.
But inside, there's more than meets the eye.
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Apart from its impressive façade and arched entryway, its primary use is not for offices or apartments. The building has found new life as a network-dense hub known as a “carrier hotel” for web-based service providers, as well as a burgeoning data center.
New Jersey-based FifteenForty-Seven Critical Systems Realty has invested more than $20 million in updating the building's high-tech infrastructure since purchasing the building for $7.25 million in September 2020. . The 130,000 square foot building is considered the most “connected” office building in Wisconsin. This is primarily due to its proximity to the adjacent and extensively wired local AT&T headquarters.
The Wells Building is home to nearly 30 data carriers, including Spectrum, Charter Communications, CenturyLink, and AT&T.
“This building has operated as a carrier hotel for about 20 years without a real organization,” said John Bonchek, 1547 chief revenue officer.
When 1547 first became interested in the property, they noticed endless twists of cables and wires coming into and running through the building. It served as a telegraph hub before eventually moving into significance as a modern internet and cloud carrier. -Based traffic. “It was a beautifully chaotic mess of opportunities,” Bonczek says.
However, the building lacked the core infrastructure needed to efficiently operate network equipment that requires large amounts of power and cooling. The building also housed some traditional office tenants, a jumble of frameworks resulting from his one-off infrastructure projects carried out by individual residents.
“Some have installed their own cooling systems using tap water and are basically running it all the time with the spigot open,” Bonczek said. The building also lacked a permanent backup generator, which is essential to ensuring uninterrupted service.
Many of the building upgrades are located behind secure glass-walled rooms or hidden in windowless spaces behind locked doors.
Investments to 1547 include a series of cooling towers installed on the roof of the building against a panoramic cityscape backdrop, as well as equipment needed to maintain a chilled water loop and uninterrupted power supply. A pair of large turquoise generators sit out of sight on his second floor. A pad for a third car has been installed and there is space for five more on the other side.
Security at the building has been strengthened by installing multiple cameras and restricting access. “It's not just that the equipment is expensive, but what's going on on the network is mission-critical to the tenant,” he says.
This is the kind of facility needed to make the modern internet and telecommunications world work. “With the increase in content, carrier hotels in markets like Milwaukee, which have served primarily along the interconnections emanating from Chicago, are becoming more important,” Bonczek says.
Beyond the infrastructure investment, 1547 converted 5,000 square feet of the building into a data center. Additionally, two entire floors will host data center operations for a variety of companies, including banks and financial services companies.
Data center services are primarily aimed at “edge” storage for new, high-demand data, rather than the infrequently accessed data that resides in larger centers.
“What is once created never disappears, [eventually] When people stop looking, they end up living in one of those big data centers,” Bonczek says. “But the things that are being built and noticed today are going to be on the edges of these centers.”
Scott Schanke, a professor of information technology management at UW-Milwaukee, said demand for edge data centers is skyrocketing due to the emergence of 5G mobile services, cloud-based technologies and increased demand for high-speed streaming, among other things.
“With the advent of 5G, we're starting to see more 'Internet of Things' applications emerge, and the ability to connect with these edge data centers will reduce response times,” Schanke said, adding that such services will require added that it is important. . “With video streaming, a lot of content can be cached or stored in edge data centers. It's better to have those centers closer to the people using the technology.”
The Wells Building has several traditional office tenants, and Bonczek said 1547 could potentially invest an additional $20 million to $30 million in the building over the next five years or so. .
“Once the lease is up, if it makes sense, we will exit the office tenant and continue building this type of infrastructure to support the real value of this building,” he said. say.
This story is part of “Milwaukee Magazine''February issue.
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