The sale of one of downtown Milwaukee's biggest office towers to an investors group that plans to convert it into apartments has received tentative court approval.

The 35-story, 435,629-square-foot 100 East building, 100 E. Wisconsin Ave., is being sold to 100 East Propco LLC, a group led by Klein Development Inc. and developer and investor John Vassallo.

Their plan is to complete that purchase by May, and then relocate office tenants from the half-full tower.

That would be followed by renovations to create around 350 high-end apartments. That work would likely be completed, with units available for rent, by around summer 2026.

The building's sale needs court approval because it's in foreclosure.

100 East Propco "is ready, willing and able" to complete the purchase with no contingencies beyond court approval, according to a court filing.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Christopher Foley approved the transaction after a Wednesday hearing − contingent on his review of a newly filed affidavit outlining the events leading to the sale agreement.

That agreement calls for a sale price of $28,750,000 − well below the $50.8 million of mortgage debt owed by building owner Hertz Milwaukee 100 East Milwaukee LLC, according to court documents.

That debt is owed to JPMDB Commercial Mortgage Securities Trust 2016-C4. That group, represented by Wilmington Trust National Association, filed a foreclosure suit against Hertz Milwaukee, an affiliate of Santa Monica, California-based Hertz Investment Group, in 2019.

100 East opened in 1989, and was 88% leased when it was sold in 2016 for $78 million to the Hertz affiliate.

But 100 East suffered a major blow when the Michael Best & Friedrich law firm, its anchor tenant, announced in 2016 that it would move to the new BMO Tower, which opened in 2020 at 790 N. Water St. That news came just three months after 100 East was sold to Hertz.

The building's remaining tenants include Gruber Law Offices LLC, Marcus Corp. and Wells Fargo Bank.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Judge approves sale of 100 East office tower to become apartments