Klement's Sausage Co.'s 15.4-acre manufacturing complex at 2650 S. Chase Ave. has changed hands for $13 million, with a General Capital Group affiliate now holding the deed to the sprawling Bay View facility. The sale doesn't mean Klement's is going anywhere: the company's parent, Chicago-based Amylu Foods, is staying put and planning to sink roughly $10 million into upgrading the plant.
The purchase, recorded in state real estate records on September 2, was first reported by Urban Milwaukee, whose Jeramey Jannene detailed the transaction. The roughly 150,000-square-foot production plant sits on land bordered to the east by Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroad tracks, per the same account. Klement's has a lease on the property that runs through 2036, so the ownership change is primarily a real estate transaction rather than a sign the sausage maker is relocating.
Fox Point-based General Capital Group, the buyer, is no stranger to the neighborhood. The firm's partner Linda Gorens-Levey is among its leadership, according to Marquette Today. General Capital previously developed the 60-unit Hide House Lofts nearby at 2615 S. Greeley St. in 2010, giving it an existing footprint just blocks from the Klement's plant.
Price Reflects Five Years of Rising Industrial Land Values
The $13 million sale price marks an $800,000 jump from the $12.2 million valuation set when Klement's sold the complex in a 2021 sale-leaseback deal with an affiliate of SARA Investment Real Estate, the report notes. That earlier transaction let Klement's cash out real estate value while continuing to operate the plant as a tenant — a structure that remains in place under the new ownership.
Klement's added the Chase Avenue plant to its operations in 1988 and has spent the past decade consolidating production there. The company launched a $7.5 million facility expansion in 2018, building on decades of manufacturing at the site even as its corporate ownership shifted repeatedly in the years that followed.
Amylu's Growth Plans for the Plant
Amylu Foods has said it will retain Klement's roughly 300 employees at the plant and plans to invest approximately $10 million there, with company officials believing new equipment could quadruple the plant's production capacity. The company has also said it plans to add about 200 workers over the following two to three years, per the same account.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, manufacturing added over 8,900 jobs, with the strongest performers being Food (+1,745 jobs).
Amylu specializes in fully cooked chicken products, including sausages and burgers — a notably different product line from Klement's traditional pork and beef bratwursts, hot dogs, summer sausages and snack sticks. Amylu Foods was founded in Chicago in 1992 by third-generation sausage maker Amylu Kurzawski, who saw an opportunity to create better-for-you chicken sausages, according to Just Food. The company acquired Klement's for an undisclosed price in 2024, and, per Food Processing, had reported 70% year-over-year sales growth beforehand as it looked to expand manufacturing capacity and product variety. In August 2025, private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners, alongside Prelude Growth Partners, completed a strategic investment in Amylu to scale operations and expand retail distribution nationwide, according to a release from the firm.
A Milwaukee Institution's Long Road Through Private Equity
Klement's traces its roots to 1956, when brothers John, George and Ronald Klement purchased Badger Sausage Co. and its Lincoln Avenue factory in Milwaukee. The family-owned company remained in Klement hands for decades until it was sold to Tall Tree Foods, a portfolio company of Altamont Capital Partners, in 2014 — the first in a chain of ownership changes that eventually led to Amylu's 2024 acquisition. Klement's maintains its corporate headquarters at The Tannery, 700 W. Virginia St., in Walker's Point.
The company closed its outlet store inside the Chase Avenue plant in April 2023, saying it needed the space to accommodate manufacturing demands. That same year, Klement's sold its original factory and adjoining properties to Hintz Holdings — an assemblage that had included an approximately 98,725-square-foot former factory, a parking lot and three houses on S. Austin Street.
Former Factory Site Now Eyed for Affordable Housing
That original factory land is now the proposed site of Austin Commons, a 100-unit affordable apartment building that would replace three vacant houses. Northernstar Companies and The Commonwealth Companies are pursuing the $33.4 million development, and the Common Council approved a $2.1 million city subsidy for the project in July.
Klement's has also spent years retreating from marquee local sponsorships even as its manufacturing footprint expanded. The Milwaukee Brewers ended a 25-year partnership with Klement's as sponsor of the Famous Racing Sausages in January 2018, handing the deal to Sheboygan Falls-based Johnsonville Sausage, according to MLB.com. Summerfest followed suit in February 2023, naming Johnsonville its official sausage sponsor after Klement's was dropped as a sponsor following a contract dispute at Milwaukee's Summerfest grounds, as reported by Radio Milwaukee. Klement's did, however, remain the official and exclusive sausage sponsor of the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum as of April 2023.
Milwaukee's sausage culture runs deep enough to help explain why a plant sale like this draws attention beyond real estate circles. Major League Baseball's tradition of serving bratwurst at games began in Milwaukee in 1953 at County Stadium, creating a local market where sausages regularly out-sell hot dogs. With Amylu now betting $10 million and 200 future jobs on the Chase Avenue plant, the century-old local appetite for bratwurst looks set to keep the factory running under new ownership for years to come.
