Property that houses Sweet Water Organics for lease
March 3, 2013
By Katherine Keller
Commercial Realty Advisors, LLC has listed the space occupied by Sweet Water Organics, 2151 S. Robinson Avenue for lease. Described as ideal for light distribution, industrial service, or manufacturing the listing includes 9,000 square feet of office and warehouse space. It is listed at $3.50 per SF NNN. The property is owned by Steven Lindner, whose Milwaukee rental-property company, Big Whale, LLC filed Chapter 11 in 2011.
When queried about whether or not Sweet Water will continue to operate in a different location or close down their sprouts, compost, and fish production operation District 14 Zielinski said, “The only thing I can say right now is that we’re looking at the options. The city is working on a number of different options. One would be to have Sweet Water Foundation operate at the same location,” he said.”
Sweet Water is in Zielinski’s district and the alderman has championed the Bay View business and lobbied on their behalf when they requested and received a $250,000 city loan in 2011. The foundation is a nonprofit organization that operates and an education entitiy in tandem with the for-profit fish and sprouts business.
Comparing Will Allen’s Growing Power urban farm operation to Sweet Water Zielinski said, “Growing Power is a nonprofit and they have met their employment projection of 150. What Sweet Water is doing is pioneering and challenging because they are trying to make it a profitable for-profit business. Sweet Water met their [city-loan mandated] employment projections the first year.”
Zielinski said there should be some concrete decisions made about Sweet Water’s options in the next “couple of weeks.”
“Right now we’re just trying to figure out a way to make this whole thing work,” he said.
At the time of the publication of this post, a call for request for comment from Sweet Water Organics officials had not been returned.
Update: Jim Godsil responded with the following when asked to comment about the future of Sweet Water Organics’ Bay View farm operation: “My focus has been [with] SWF (Sweet Water Foundation) since 2011. Complex story I’ll better share as more info arrives.”
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Art Kimball on Wed, 6th Mar 2013 7:37 pm
Reading between the lines of Chairman Zielinski’s blather one can sense that city loan money did not do the “trick” to make Sweet Water profitable (something Chairman Z espoused frequently), that the problems documented by the Compass over the last year concerning operations and employment were not mere growing pains and, most disturbing, Sweet Water made the small employment numbers required in 2011, but must not have made their numbers in 2012; otherwise Chairman Z would have made a huge point of that.
Poor leadership and open pockets for projects which have not produced as promised are the hallmarks of our politico Chairman Z. Next time you wonder why taxes are high and services are decreasing remember it was all brought to you by Tony Z.
Building housing Sweet Water “Organics” up for lease | The Penn Ave Post on Sat, 9th Mar 2013 3:19 am
[...] the building that currently houses troubled aquaponics operation Sweet Water “Organics” is up for lease. Commercial Realty Advisors, LLC has listed the space occupied by Sweet Water Organics, 2151 S. [...]