The Tour
On May 7, 2026, I conducted a full walkthrough of Oakwood Commerce Center with Tom Shepard (Partner, Colliers Wisconsin), accompanied by Jen Huber-Bullock (Senior Investment Analyst, Colliers). The tour included all four tenant suites, an extended on-site interview with the Home Depot install coordinator, and a drive-through of the surrounding Franklin Business Park including the adjacent Yaskawa campus and Oakwood Park golf course.
The notes that follow combine on-site observations with property-level data from the offering memorandum, rent roll, and broker leasing color from Brett Garceau (Colliers, who personally executed the recent KM Tire / startup gym lease in the sister building next door). Where the OM and on-site walkthrough conflict, on-site observations are the source of truth.
Building & Site
Oakwood Commerce Center is a 54,833 SF Class B industrial / flex building constructed in 2000 within Franklin Business Park — the premium institutional industrial node of the Milwaukee MSA. The building features a 24' clear height, 50' x 50' demisable bay grid, and a balanced loading configuration with seven dock doors and seven drive-in doors. The asset has been professionally owned and managed since construction and presents accordingly — a full mill-and-overlay of the parking lot was completed in 2021/2022 and active dock/asphalt maintenance was underway during the site visit.
Rent Roll & On-Site Read
The rent roll is anchored by The Home Depot (NYSE: HD, S&P: A) and Empire Today (the country's largest direct-to-consumer flooring provider). Three of the four tenants offer mark-to-market opportunity at rollover, and Empire's recently-executed $7.75 PSF NNN renewal — with no TI — is the most important data point in the deal: it is recent, in-place, and validates the building's pricing power.
Regional cross-dock for Home Depot Exterior Solutions (windows, with growing volume in interior products). Tenant-funded office build-out completed 2024; 250+ active jobs across Wisconsin at time of visit. Long-term plan is promotion to a standalone Wisconsin branch — expected to roughly double staffing and drive additional office build-out. Significant runway in the existing footprint.
Lease structure: 10% cumulative compounding cap on controllables. Capital replacements >$10K amortized over remaining term. ROFR on adjacent space. Two 5-year FMV options provide a clean, no-floor mark-to-market mechanism.
Regional distribution and dispatch center for the country's largest direct-to-consumer flooring provider. Well-built ~17.4% office finish. 12–15 employees on-site during a typical post-shipment lull; stocked inventory and active operations.
Just executed a 5-year renewal at $7.75 PSF NNN with zero TI and 3.5% annual bumps — the in-place market validation that anchors the entire rent roll. Brett Garceau (Colliers): space is "good, at market currently."
All-warehouse cross-dock for freight courier operations. Active inbound/outbound activity at time of visit. The lease structure is unusually flexible — both LL termination right (60 days), tenant termination option (effective 2/29/2028, 180 days notice + $10K fee), and LL relocation right. For an active landlord, this is a feature: it preserves optionality on the smallest, most flexible suite in the building.
Established competitive cheer/tumbling gym — 21 national championships hanging on the wall. Evening-class operating model deliberately scheduled to avoid conflict with the warehouse tenants. Affluent, sticky Franklin/southwest-Milwaukee customer base; purpose-specific build-out increases switching cost meaningfully.
Building Walkthrough
Functional Layout & Construction
- Constructed 2000 with CMU exterior — clean lines, well-maintained landscaping, no observable envelope issues.
- 24' clear is a real strength for this size class — supports rack-up product storage that the existing tenants demand and that mid-bay industrial users in Franklin specifically seek.
- 50' x 50' bay grid with both dock and drive-in at each "true small bay." The original developer purpose-built this for demising flexibility — each ~6,000 SF unit is a self-contained suite, the buyer's primary downside protection on the rent roll.
- Demising note: an additional restroom rough-in is required to fully demise to all 6K sub-bays. Modest scope, well-understood by local GCs.
Roof — A Manageable, Properly-Reserved Capital Item
- Original ballasted EPDM membrane (~25 years). Tom Shepard was transparent on tour: "If your group is going to own it 5–10 years, just budget in that 5–10 year period. There's no issues today."
- Drone footage reviewed — visually acceptable. A pre-LOI roof consultant inspection is the appropriate next step and will give a definitive scope and timing answer.
- Underwriting approach: reserve $4–7 PSF ($220K–$385K) for an eventual full replacement, modeled in years 3–7. A finite, well-defined capital event that becomes a constructive negotiation point with the seller.
Loading, Truck Court & Parking
- Loading is well-suited to the tenant base — 7 docks (9'x10') and 7 drive-ins (12'x14'). Each suite has a balanced dock/drive-in mix.
- Parking lot full mill and overlay completed in 2021/2022 — visibly the best-maintained surface in the immediate park. Concrete on the rear truck court is in good condition.
- Active vendor maintenance on dock repairs and asphalt patching at time of tour — ongoing seller-funded upkeep.
- Truck court is shared, best suited to logistics-style tenants without large overflow trailer needs — matching the actual existing tenancy and the realistic demand pool.
White-Box & TI Strategy
- Brett Garceau (Colliers leasing) confirms the building can support strong market rents on rollover. The buyer's value-creation playbook is a defined set of items: paint warehouse walls/deck white, LED relamp the warehouse, build out office to ~10–15% on new-tenant suites to match Empire's finish level.
- Plan $4–6 PSF TI on new leases (vs. $2 PSF in OM) — a more institutional underwriting stance that matches what the local market actually requires for 5-year deals.
- Net effect: the buyer takes the building from $6.62 average rent today to a realistic $7.25–$7.75 NNN blended over a 3–5 year hold, with Empire's $7.75 renewal as the in-place proof point.
Rent Roll Upside
Three of four tenants are below market on rent. The OM market assumption is at the upper end of the range; a more institutional underwrite supports a stabilized blended rent of $7.25–$7.75 PSF NNN over the hold — still a meaningful lift over the $6.62 PSF in-place average and validated by the Empire renewal data point.
| Tenant | Size (SF) | Lease Exp. | In-Place Rent | OM Mkt Rent | % Below Market |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Depot | 20,749 | Apr 2028 | $6.28 | $7.75 | 19% |
| PDS Courier | 6,500 | Feb 2029 | $6.70 | $8.25 | 23% |
| Rockstar Athletics | 8,617 | Jun 2030 | $5.74 | $8.25 | 44% |
| Empire Today (just renewed) | 18,967 | Jul 2031 | $7.75 | $7.75 | At Mkt |
| Averages / Totals | 54,833 | 3.40 yr WALT | $6.62 avg | $7.91 blend | ~20% blended |
Franklin Business Park & The Yaskawa Catalyst
Franklin Business Park is the premium institutional industrial node within the Milwaukee MSA. Originally developed by MLG in the late 1990s with institutional capital from Investcorp, GE Asset Management, Opus, Zilber, and James Campbell. The current credit roster surrounding the property includes Yaskawa, Snyder's-Lance, Campbell's, Cintas, PCA (Packaging Corp of America), Lubrizol, Amphenol, and Tiger Aesthetics. Submarket vacancy of just 1.6%.
The Yaskawa Catalyst — Directly Across the Street. $180M, 800,000 SF Yaskawa North American HQ Campus is being built immediately adjacent to the property. 700–1,000 new jobs over an 8–10 year build-out. Operations within existing buildings already began in 2025, and the City of Franklin just approved the TIF. This is the single most important demand-side fact in the deal — the buyer is acquiring directly across from one of the most significant industrial development announcements in the Midwest.
Broader Corridor Investment
- Carma Labs (Carmex) — $38M / 225,000 SF new HQ completed late 2024.
- Microsoft Fairwater — $7B AI data center, 1.2 MSF across three phases, ~17 miles south. Phase 1 went live April 2026.
- Eli Lilly — $3B pharmaceutical facility expansion, construction starting 2025.
- Saputo Cheese — $80M plant.
- Uline — 1.44 MSF building (Wisconsin's largest warehouse), completed Kenosha Dec 2024.
- Amazon Robotic Fulfillment — 2.6 MSF, $200M, completed 2020, 8 minutes from the property.
Sub-3-mile drive to I-94/41 via Hwy 100/Ryan Road provides direct logistics connectivity to Chicago and the broader Midwest.
Aerial Video
Drone footage captured during the May 7, 2026 site visit, showing the building footprint, parking, truck court, the adjacent Yaskawa campus, and surrounding Franklin Business Park.
Drone Photos (27)
Aerials of the building, roof, parking, truck court, the adjacent Yaskawa campus, and broader site context within Franklin Business Park. Click any tile to open the full-resolution image.
Interior & Exterior Photos (14)
Photos taken during the walkthrough — tenant suites, loading, office finishes, exterior, and operational details across all four tenants.
Investment Thesis & Offer Framework
Oakwood Commerce Center is a textbook fit for a private investor focused on Class B industrial in supply-constrained Midwestern submarkets. It rhymes directly with the recent Minneapolis-area acquisitions in this product class: same vintage, same product type, same multi-tenant flex profile, same kind of supply-constrained submarket dynamic.
The combination of a name-brand anchor (Home Depot, S&P A-rated), a freshly-renewed at-market $7.75 NNN deal with Empire Today, a clear mark-to-market path on Home Depot and Rockstar, an institutional submarket with 1.6% vacancy, and the Yaskawa $180M campus directly across the street is exactly the setup that this product class trades on.
Pricing Framework
How The Deal Works
- Move early. Property went broadly to market on/around 5/7 with a ~30-day window before formal Call for Offers. Tom Shepard explicitly indicated early offers welcomed.
- Lead with execution certainty. Established sponsor profile, repeat investor in this product class, in-house PM transition (smooth handoff to Colliers PM Molly Keller already in place).
- Convert the roof into a constructive credit. Independent inspection drives either a closing escrow or modest price adjustment.
- Underwrite the rent roll conservatively. Use Empire's $7.75 renewal as the in-place market proof point; assume $4–5 PSF TI on Home Depot and PDS rollover.
Bottom line. A high-quality, fundamentally sound, 100%-leased asset in one of the best industrial submarkets in the Midwest, anchored by a publicly-traded credit tenant, with a recent at-market renewal validating the rent roll, demonstrable mark-to-market upside, and a defined, finite capital plan. The right execution strategy is to engage the listing team early, pursue actively, and lead the buyer to entry in the low-to-mid $90s PSF with appropriate diligence protections. This deal is worth winning — and winning it well.