Developer of the Year

Milwaukee tops Zilber’s priority list

Joe Zilber Founder and chairman of Zilber Ltd., Milwaukee

Joe Zilber doesn’t believe in retirement.

The Milwaukee-based developer is 89 years old and finishing up a monumental year that included launching the ambitious Pabst Brewery development and donating $30 million to the Marquette University Law School.

“The reason he is interested in the Pabst project, frankly, is strictly to do a good thing for the city of Milwaukee,” said Jim Janz, an executive who has worked for Zilber for 40 years. “It’s not our business. We don’t do things like this project in an urban center, and we don’t do historic redevelopment.

“Joe decided it was something that needed to be done, and needed to be done in the right way.”

Zilber, the chairman and founder of Zilber Ltd., is a Milwaukee native who has developed buildings in the city and around the country for 58 years. A successful businessman, Zilber turned a lifetime of wealth into philanthropy.

In August, he announced a $50 million gift to Milwaukee, with the $30 million for Marquette — Zilber graduated from Marquette’s law school in 1941 — and another $20 million for various city organizations and projects.

Zilber’s legacy, however, might be the Pabst project. Officially named The Brewery, the major development is located in the northwest corner of downtown Milwaukee, directly east of Interstate 43.

The 20-acre site is next to one of the city’s main entrances with more than 200,000 vehicles passing it every day. When complete, the mixed-use development will be a neighborhood of residential, commercial and industrial developments totaling 1.3 million square feet in available space.

Zilber’s company expects to lose money on The Brewery, which came to be after the Milwaukee City Council rejected WisPark’s plans for a $71 million tax incremental finance district.

“You don’t find developers who take on projects of this magnitude and in-vesting the sums of money he’s spent on it, knowing he’s not going to make money on it,” Janz said.

Beyond business dealings, Zilber’s co-workers said they admire him for his enduring work ethic, which will carry him past his 90th birthday in November.

Zilber works every day and encourages his executives to continue working well beyond the traditional retirement age as a way to stay active and alive.

“He tells all of us not to plan on retiring,” Janz said. “He’s hired several people who were forced to retire at 65, including some bank presidents. Joe simply insists they come back to work.”

John Kersey, director of the Zilber-founded Town Investments, said Zilber’s long-term success comes from seeing what other people miss — a trait he still holds after six decades in the business.

“He's got the instincts and the confidence to act on his hunches,” Kersey said.

“He's a dying breed of entrepreneurs who does things he thinks in his heart and gut will work out.

“His decisions aren’t based on major stacks of spreadsheets. They’re based on internal feel if a project is good or isn’t.”

Rocky Marcoux, commissioner of Milwaukee’s Department of City Development, said Zilber’s instincts, paired with experience and skill, helped him grasp the complexity of the Pabst project. He added that it was Zilber’s love for Milwaukee that got the project rolling.

“It’s one of the most exciting developments in the state,” Marcoux said. “It has the potential to be transformative. He has an innate desire to move Milwaukee forward and help the city rebuild itself as a 21st century city.”

By Dustin Block