Fiserv moving headquarters to downtown Milwaukee from Brookfield. 800 jobs are involved.
Tom Daykin
Financial and payments technology provider Fiserv Inc. will move its headquarters from Brookfield to downtown Milwaukee, eventually totaling nearly 800 jobs for the city, the company announced Thursday.
Fiserv will lease around 160,000 square feet at HUB640, the redeveloped former Boston Store building, 640 N. Phillips Ave.
Fiserv expects to begin moving its operations from Brookfield to Milwaukee in 2023, said Britt Zarling, senior vice president of corporate communications.
The large but low-key company has been based at 255 Fiserv Drive, in Brookfield Lakes Corporate Center office park, since 1992.
The global headquarters project, which will include the addition of 250 jobs over five years and a roughly $40 million investment, is contingent on receiving financing assistance currently being considered by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. and the City of Milwaukee, according to a company statement.
The headquarters will total around 780 jobs, according to a source familiar with the plans.
In return, the Common Council is to create a tax incremental financing district to provide $7 million for the project. Annual payments would be made over 20 years from HUB640's enhanced property tax revenue tied to Fiserv's renovated headquarters space.
The amount of WEDC's planned public financing help isn't yet available, said a spokesman for the state agency. WEDC typically provides tax credits if relocating and expanding employers hit specific job targets.
The Legislature in 2017 approved plans to provide up to $12.5 million to Fiserv if it built its new headquarters in Wisconsin and retained 93% of its jobs. WEDC officials at that time said other states were seeking to lure the company's headquarters.
Fiserv “recently made staffing adjustments that impact a small percentage” of the company’s employees, company spokesperson Ann Cave told the publication. She declined to say how many employees were affected, or provide their locations.
Thursday's announcement included statements of praise from Gov. Tony Evers and Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
“Milwaukee is an ideal location for Fiserv’s global headquarters, which will be a prominent showcase and physical manifestation of the company’s brand experience, and Fiserv will add significantly to the positive energy in the center of our city,” Johnson said.
“This is what the power of partnerships is all about. I welcome Fiserv and the hundreds of employees coming to Westown," Johnson said.
The new headquarters is part of "the company’s strategy to bring people together in strategic hub locations to inspire innovation and collaboration, and to attract the best talent to best serve clients," Fiserv's statement said.
HUB640 is adjacent to The Avenue, a separately owned mixed-use development which replaced the former Grand Avenue mall.
HUB640 might be best known as the future home of a small format Kohl's department store that is to open on its ground floor in fall 2023.
The building, operated by Chicago-based North Wells Capital LLC, has three other office tenants: nursing home and assisted living center operator North Shore Healthcare; Eight Eleven Group, which provides technology and business staffing and consulting services, and Abacus Architects.
Fiserv executives in 2017 announced they were evaluating a possible move of the Brookfield headquarters.
That process looked at sites in Brookfield, Wauwatosa and Milwaukee.
Also, commercial real estate industry sources said potential locations could include a vacant lot in downtown's Deer District east of Fiserv Forum's parking structure.
That speculation came after the company in 2018 announced it had signed a 25-year naming rights contract for Fiserv Forum, home to the Milwaukee Bucks, which opened that year.
But Fiserv suspended that search in 2019 to focus on its $22 billion acquisition of First Data Corp. − which has helped fuel the company's continuing growth.
What does the company Fiserv do?
The company sells financial technology for such areas as account processing and digital banking, card issuer processing and network services, e-commerce, merchant acquiring and processing, and cloud-based point-of-sale.
The headquarters announcement came as Fiserv reported its third quarter net income of $481 million, a 12.4% increase, on revenue of $4.5 billion. The company posted revenue of $13.1 billion and net income of $1.75 billion through the first three quarters of 2022.
The new Milwaukee new world headquarters "will be a dynamic hub of collaboration and innovation, bringing our people together in an inspiring workplace to create opportunity for energizing and career growth experiences, as we lead the industry forward on behalf of our clients,” said Frank Bisignano, president, chairman and chief executive officer.
“As part of our investment in this new Fiserv global headquarters, we look forward to being a force for good, as we create positive and meaningful impact and grow our presence in the increasingly vibrant downtown Milwaukee community," Bisignano said, in a statement.
Suburban Milwaukee companies have made the move to downtown offices in recent years
Fiserv becomes the latest in a series of suburban Milwaukee companies that have been opening large downtown area offices in recent years. Companies have made those moves to better attract and retain employees, including younger workers.
Milwaukee Tool has its new downtown office under construction at 501 W. Michigan St.
While its headquarters is still in Brookfield, Milwaukee Tool will receive $12.1 million in city funds in return for having at least 1,210 employees at the redeveloped downtown office building by the end of 2026, according to its agreement with the city.
Komatsu Mining Corp. in December started opening its new corporate campus, including an office building and manufacturing facility, at 401 E. Greenfield Ave., in the Harbor District. About 1,000 employees moved from an office building on Milwaukee's far west side and from manufacturing operations in West Milwaukee.
Dock equipment maker Rite-Hite Holding Corp. in July started moving employees from Brown Deer to its new Freshwater Way corporate campus at Reed Street Yards business park, in Walker's Point. Roughly 300 Rite-Hite employees will be based there by March.
Industrial equipment maker Regal Rexnord Corp. in 2020 moved around 120 employees from West Milwaukee and a Milwaukee building into renovated downtown corporate offices at 105-111 W. Michigan St.
Fiserv was formed in 1984.
Fiserv had 44,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2021, according to its latest annual report.
In addition its headquarters, Fiserv operates "centralized campus environments in strategic locations across the U.S.," including in Florida, Georgia, Nebraska and New Jersey, the annual report said.
The company's move to HUB640 joins other large developments on downtown's west side, including the expansion of the Wisconsin Center convention facility, the redevelopment of The Avenue to include offices, apartments and 3rd Street Market Hall and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's Bradley Symphony Center.
Fiserv was represented by Bill Bonifas, Matt Cariello and Kenzie Kiefer with CBRE on the downtown lease, with John Davis and Ned Purtell, of Founders 3, representing building owner North Wells.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.