Wisconsin office is concentrated across Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, and Appleton, with materially different lender appetite by submarket and tenant credit profile. Milwaukee is anchored by a major life-insurance company headquarters, a major employee-owned wealth-management firm, industrial-automation, building-technology, staffing and motorcycle headquarters, and a deep insurance and manufacturing base; Madison is anchored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a health-IT software campus in Verona (one of the largest single-employer corporate campuses in the U.S. by employment), state government, and UW Health . Milwaukee CBD insurance- and manufacturing-headquarters office is more resilient than most Midwest CBDs; Madison health-IT and biotech-tenanted office is one of the more reliable national office stories.
Active capital sources
- Life Companies
- CMBS Lenders
- Wisconsin Regional Banks
- National Debt Funds
Loan programs we place
- Stabilized Class A Perm Debt
- Credit-Tenant Office Financing
- Office Bridge / Repositioning Capital
- Refinance / Recapitalization
Source notes
- BLS QCEW, 2025
Frequently asked questions
What is the current LTV for Madison office assets?
Long-WALT credit-tenant Class A office typically clears 55% to 65% LTV through life companies and CMBS, supported by tenant credit and weighted-average-lease-term sizing . Conventional speculative office is meaningfully more selective and frequently sizes to debt yields of 10.0% or higher rather than headline LTV.
Is non-recourse debt available for Wisconsin office?
Yes for stabilized institutional executions. Life-company, CMBS, and most national debt-fund executions on long-WALT credit-tenant office are non-recourse with standard bad-boy carve-outs. Smaller-balance regional bank loans, most office bridge loans, and conversion / repositioning loans typically carry partial recourse, particularly for newer sponsors or during repositioning lease-up periods.
What is Wisconsin's transfer tax structure for commercial office?
Wisconsin imposes a state real estate transfer fee of $0.30 per $100 of consideration (0.30%). There is no statewide mortgage tax beyond a small recording fee. Total transfer tax burden of roughly 0.30% of consideration is moderate by national standards, meaningfully lower than Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Washington equivalents.
Is conventional Madison CBD office still financeable?
Yes for stabilized Class A with strong tenancy, capital-reserve adequacy, and credible long-term tenant retention assumptions, but the lender pool is meaningfully narrower than for life-sciences, GSA-leased, or single-credit-tenant net-leased product. Smaller deals (under $50M) frequently come down to a competitive process between in-state regional banks and a couple of life-company correspondent shops. Office-to-residential conversion bridge debt is available through a focused subset of debt funds active on Wisconsin files for sponsors with experienced conversion track records.