As Work Space, Old Post Offices Have a Timeless Allure<br />“Truly unique postindustrial space can’t be replicated, especially in great locations,” said Matt Garrison, a managing principal at R2 Companies, a Chicago real estate company<br />that bought a 1.1-million-square-foot postal distribution center in downtown Milwaukee from an investor in 2015.<br />The redevelopment will turn former mail-processing areas into uncommon office spaces, taking advantage of expansive spaces with 19-foot-high<br />ceilings, said Brian Whiting, president of Telos Group, a Chicago brokerage firm looking for tenants to fill the building.<br />It’s an orientation of the past that we want to bring into the future.”<br />In a former two-story warehouse on the property, Lovett wants to create spaces for shops, artists<br />and food purveyors on the ground level and office areas geared toward creative companies on the second floor.<br />It’s up to 200,000 square feet on a floor and a really open space with great light” and transportation links, Mr. Rosen said.<br />“It literally allows us to create an entire neighborhood in the building, or multiple neighborhoods<br />in the building to give people that work community they’re really looking for.”<br />Two developers, the Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust, are making a similar bet on the James A. Farley Building in Manhattan, a building completed in 1913<br />that features a facade with Corinthian-style columns along one side.
