Case Studies - Industrial Properties

The Milwaukee Gas Light Company was established in 1852 to light the streets of Milwaukee. Soon after that, the company began offering domestic lighting services to the public as well. In 1904 the company built its West Side Gas Plant to support its growing services. Designed by architect Alexander Eschweiler, the Richardsonian Romanesque building housed retort furnaces to super-heat coal into gas that is then stored in gasometers, and piped throughout the city overnight.

As one of the largest private investment projects in Indiana, the Bottleworks District project highlights how private and public partners, with the right mix of resources, can turn brownfield liabilities into a remarkable redevelopment success story.

The project has won many design awards, and according to Beloit College’s website, “The Powerhouse is a first-of-its-kind facility in the country—preserving a historical building while combining student life spaces and recreational facilities.”

Standard 1 of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation states that a property shall be used for its historic purpose, or be put in a new use that requires the least amount of change to its historic character. One of the biggest challenges for property owners is finding economically viable functions for structures that have out-lived their intended purposes…this often takes a bit of creativity.

From the mid-nineteenth century until about 1875, American flax production and, thus, flax processing plants, were centered in Ohio, but the industry gradually moved farther west and north where the climate proved to be especially good for growing flax. Construction of the Sioux City Linseed Oil Works in Sioux City, Iowa, began in 1883.

Built in two campaigns between 1883 and 1905, the Kansas Fruit Vinegar Company Building has been revived as office and art gallery space via the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit program. At the rehabilitation project’s outset, the building had all of its original materials and retained the footprint of the factory as it existed in the early 20th century.

The Cheney Brothers Historic District in Manchester, Connecticut was a center of the U.S. silk industry in the late 19th and early 20th century. Today a National Historic Landmark, the 175-acre historic district includes over 275 mill buildings, workers houses, churches, schools, and Cheney family mansions. These structures represent the well-preserved company town of the Cheney Brothers silk manufacturing company, the first America-based silk-producing company.

The historic American Brewery that once stood as an icon of industry in the thriving East Baltimore neighborhood sat vacant for over 30 years before the non-profit organization Humanim purchased the building for redevelopment. Humanim is a human services agency which now houses its employment programs and clinical support services in the rehabilitated brewery.