Milwaukee bike company Fyxation, located in Riverwest, has expanded its operation by acquiring the Pedal Milwaukee Building, 3618 W. Pierce St., in Silver City, on the edge of the Menomonee Valley.
"Fyxation has purchased the Pedal Milwaukee Building to further expand our growing business," co-owner Ben Ginster said via email this morning. "The building will serve as our warehouse, design center and corporate offices. The business is also home to a number of bicycle related businesses including the Wisconsin Bike Fed, Velobahn Coffee and Team Sports Inc."
Ben and his brother Nick Ginster purchased the building through their newest venture, Next Session, LLC. The 12,200-square foot red and cream city brick building – which has in the past been home to General Hardware Co. and Economy Paper Co. – was built in 1929 and designed by architect John Topzant.
The purchase marks the return of Fyxation to its birthplace. The brothers started their business in the building in 2009 and moved to 2943 N. Humboldt Blvd. in 2015 to open a retail store. That location will remain open.
The Ginster brothers bought the building from Tom Schuler, who owns Team Sports Inc., which is now a tenant in the Pedal Milwaukee building.
"Schuler, a former Olympic cyclist and founding member of the 7-Eleven Cycling Team, purchased the building in 2011 and had always intended to make the building a hub for cycling related businesses here in Milwaukee," reads a statement from the Ginsters.
"Fyxation intends to keep that vision for the building intact and plans to lease additional space to like minded businesses and companies that share in their vision of encouraging an active lifestyle that benefits Milwaukee and beyond."
The brothers intend to offer additional space in the building for lease to businesses and individuals.
"This building has a ton of energy right now and we are excited to offer up additional space for small businesses and individuals looking to work in this dynamic environment.", said Nick Ginster. "We plan to offer both long term leases to businesses and month to month rentals in our co-working space which is ideal for entrepreneurs, startups, remote employees or individuals looking for an exciting, collaborative environment to work outside of their homes.
"Tenants will have access to our shared conference room, off-street parking and there are tons of other perks here at Pedal Milwaukee. For us cyclists, being so close to the Hank Aaron Trail is tops on the list, but sharing space with an amazing coffee shop and being minutes by bike to Miller Park are right up there."
For more information visit pedalmilwaukee.com.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
