Near $10M Homeland Security building sells to MSOE for $1.09M in 'donation' to alma mater.

• Author: Duran, Ethan
• Position: Milwaukee School of Engineering

Byline: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF

By Ethan Duran and Steve Schuster

eduran@dailyreporter.com and sschuster@dailyreporter.com

The Milwaukee School of Engineering has purchased a building leased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services on the north end of campus, according to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

Although the school paid $1.09 million for the three-story building at 310 E. Knapp St. on March 1, it was actually valued at nearly 10 times that amount.

The property was recently assessed at nearly $10 million and just two years ago was valued at around $13 million, according to Kendall Breunig, owner of Sunset Investors Knapp LLC, who sold the property to MSOE.

Well, not quite $10 million.

"The property had an assessed value of $9,275,400 in 2022," said Camille McBee with the Milwaukee County Assessor's Office during an interview with The Daily Reporter on Thursday.

Breunig told The Daily Reporter that he sold the property to MSOE for four times less than what he paid for it about two years ago.

"I paid $4.75 million for the property in 2021," Breunig said during an interview Wednesday, noting that the significantly reduced sale price is a donation to his alma mater.

When MSOE officials were asked about the donation, they declined to comment and said "we are going to stick to our original statement, we have nothing further to add," a spokeswoman told The Daily Reporter on Wednesday.

Chicago-native turned Milwaukee attorney and now Alderman Robert Bauman told The Daily Reporter that MSOE is a valuable asset to Milwaukee and he fully supports the transaction.

Although the 58,000-square-foot building was custom made for Homeland Security in 2001, it will be converted into useable academic space for MSOE, according to Breunig.

MSOE will continue to be the landlord for Homeland Security until it decides to vacate, Breunig added.

Breunig first acquired the building in 2021 and said he was the third owner. Homeland Security had been leasing the property from multiple owners, he added.

Homeland Security officials tell The Daily Reporter that they have found a new home with a to be determined move in date.

"The USCIS Milwaukee field office and it's co-located Application Support Center will be relocating to 310 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is the only USCIS office in Wisconsin," USCIC officials said during an interview with The Daily Reporter Wednesday.

Although USCIS...