Hundreds of workers get ready to make Milwaukee’s downtown their destination. This as Fiserv chooses Milwaukee to be the company’s global headquarters and others have workers return to the office.
Jordan Wallin, the general manager at Wok Downtown, has been working for restaurants inside the 3rd Street Market Hall since it opened in 2022. He says events had helped to drive a lot of the business, but that is changing as companies like Fiserv moved downtown and others have brought workers downtown.
For small businesses like Wok Downtown that change means they can count on regulars.
“We love being down here with the consistent, consistent business that it brings us,” says Wollin.
“Fiserv is putting its global headquarters here comes on the heels of Milwaukee Tool adding 1,200 people, Interpack moving its corporate headquarters here,” said Tim Sheehy, senior advisor at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
On top of that, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce says U.S. Bank will require its employees to come into the office three days a week by the end of March.
“Downtown Milwaukee there were roughly 90,000 people that worked downtown before the pandemic. When the pandemic hit that dropped to 60,000 and my guess is we are back to about 80,000,” said Sheehy. “But the addition of Fiserv, Milwaukee Tool, US Bank and Northwestern Mutual adding a second tower, I think we are going to exceed where we were pre-pandemic.”
Northwestern Mutual said in a statement, “Northwestern Mutual has maintained flexible work arrangements and recognizes the need for a physical space for employees to gather. We have employees who are in the office five days a week, employees who are fully remote, and many employees who are in a few days a week in a hybrid model.”
Wallin says they notice the days when more people tend to work from home. But he believes having people work in person is making a difference for the city.
“Downtowns needs to be revitalized and you need that effort and really seeing the effort here downtown,” said Wallin.
As companies return to the downtown, MMAC latest survey finds one of the biggest issues continues to be finding workers for those jobs.
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