Mr. Watts,

Thank you for your most meaningful reply and thank you for seeing value in our vision. When I say our I can really only speak for Jack, Alex and myself. Johnny was all in for a few days and has pulled back and Jim has always been skeptical.

I believe you restaurant has a legacy in Milwaukee that can be leveraged, as far as I know the sign is still standing. I was utterly shocked when I walked in to find it gone. So I think as a license, in that particular location has value. That’s between you and Johnny. My idea is to make it cyber, but not in a clumsy way. Also I would like to take iced tea very seriously, last time I was at Mo’s a Place for Steaks the bartender and I invented an Earl Grey – Shaken Not Stirred for $5/glass that a few patrons enjoyed.

And thank you for those kind words at the end, when everyone has telling you that you lost your mind even I start to wonder.

Anyhow here’s my ideal: I’d like to update the flyer, I assume you want to keep Kessler’s so I have to pull Milwaukee PC off, I’d add your logo, name and email where that is. I certainly would like to talk to your architect and see what he has in mind: I’ve attached what Boer centered his designs around for Posner. Obviously we have much less of a footprint to work with so what’s practical is going to be different. If he’s interested we can replace Boer with his logo.

From a practical stand point again we’re targeting 13 Nov 2017 for the venture capital fundraiser, but we can only start advertising if the space is locked. From my understanding this space has been on the market since 2016 and is not moving. I’m willing to put my poster collection down as collateral for the VC Fundraiser on the first floor and a lease at whatever rate you determine acceptable once your architect and I determine the exact proposed renovations and what percentage would be paid by the fund and what by your family. I understand there is significant opportunity cost here as I’m basically asking you to delist your property for 3 months and bank on that I can pull this fund raiser off.

However I sincerely hope others will see this bold vision as you have and invest in it. Simply making the above additions will enable me to reach out to my “past” partners to develop the business plan and put something compelling into place. Specifically with MUHS and MU in the Field/Promotion day.

Thanks again - J

From: Sam Watts [mailto:swatts@georgewatts.com]
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2017 11:47 AM
To: Jason Lind <jason.lind@wwidew.net>
Cc: External-Jack Driscoll <jack.driscoll@gmail.com>; External-Alex Yale <cosmicmayhem@gmail.com>; External-Amanda Morden <a.morden@yahoo.com>; johnnyv@mosrestaurants.com; Bill La Macchia Jr. <BillJr@lamacchiaenterprises.com>; kimmyv79@gmail.com; jmpetr@milwaukeepc.com
Subject: Re: Milwaukee Private Library Beta 2

Mr. Lind,

I'm intrigued by your email and proposal.  I think you certainly have a vision and have thus far, rallied and built an interesting and thought provoking group that will work within your construct.   I'm certainly enticed by the idea of your occupancy in the spaces you envision.  I would certainly support the installation of locally owned and backed businesses into our building - in fact, this would be our first choice when presented the option of corporate or local tenants.  I also think the type of businesses your are proffering appear to fit with the current tenants we have in place and that they align with our vision of the building.
With this in mind, I'm not sure how I could offer my "institutional" support.  The Watts brand has been shifted, by design, to a commercial real estate enterprise.  We no longer felt that competing in the retail space with the likes of a brand like Amazon made fiscal sense.  In addition, while we cherished the legacy and tradition of the restaurant, we also operated our businesses as exactly that - a business, not a charity or history lesson.  A cursory review showed a work and time commitment that did not equitably translate into a reciprocal profit.  Further, an analysis of the real estate and leasing market yielded an ever growing demand and higher opportunity for return on investment.  To give you an idea, operating the businesses versus operating the space as commercial real estate results in a four fold increase in revenue and profits with a 90% decrease in time commitment.
I'm a corporate tax accountant by trade and work full time for a publicly traded company here in Wisconsin.  In addition, I own and operate a real estate company that specializes in multi-family property acquisition and management.  I tell you this and the brief synopsis above because I'm not sure what role you envision us in but we have no interests other than cultivating a pure lessor/lessee partnership.  We are no longer interested in small business or entrepreneurship - we support those involved and that are enticed by the possibilities but have grown weary and have made a deliberate exit.   The Watts Tea Shop could certainly be rebranded, reopened and licensed, that is very much on the table.  In fact, we are exploring options for our most famous recipes to be launched and repositioned.  But, I operate the building as a business for my family as a favor to them and to fully leverage my professional experience to provide a value and expertise in tax, accounting, and property management.  We have no interest in making additional business operation and commitments beyond this.
We currently have the space listed professionally by Colliers International.  We have an onus to them, both professionally and by contract, to take serious inquiries into leasing the space and move them forward.  The first floor space is approx. 4000 square feet - it's marketed currently at $22.50  We are flexible on pricing but this is a good base line.  If no Landlord improvement is required, we could be swayed to go lower ($18 or so).  The first floor space comes (free of charge) with three bonus areas.  An upper and lower mezzanine space, each 800 square feet, finished and equipped with restrooms, along with basement storage up to 3000 square feet.  The second floor space is not currently listed but will be in the very near future.  It is comprised of about 2600 square feet and will list at $16-$18 per square foot.  Both spaces are readily available.  The spaces all require several things from suitors.  A minimum lease term of 5 years, personal guarantees form the business owners, and financial presentation requirements for all owners/lessors and/or businesses for the last 5 years.  The standards aren't strict, per se, but are non negotiable nonetheless.  There are additional amenities and features that I can share with you if you want to continue to pursue it but I wanted you to have all the information prior.
If you still have a genuine interest, I would be happy to continue the conversation.  Contrary to your reference, I don't think you are delusional or an embarrassment.  In fact, I think it takes great courage and vision to create something from nothing.  Nurturing ideas and taking bold risks is what life is about.  If no one took chances, we wouldn't progress as people or as a society.  Keep in mind though the distinction between calculated risk and brazen decision making.  Timing is always the most important factor.  Thank you again for your interest, I'll look for your response.  If you prefer, a more technical and detail listing of the spaces is available from Corey Sovine at Colliers International.

Regards,

Sam Watts

On Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 10:28 AM, Jason Lind <jason.lind@wwidew.net> wrote:
Mr. Watts,

==What we’re looking to accomplish==
Milwaukee Private Library is designed to be a collective of organizations that work in concert with each other. It was initially meant to be in a completely refurbished Posner Builder which at the time Johnny Vassallo owned. Obviously the attached flyer, Milwaukee PC particularly, will not work at your location due to space unless you toss out Kessler’s which I think would be an epic mistake for the neighborhood unless we could relocate them somewhere else.

I know  that you are refactoring the building but I would envision we should not impact your current tenants as there are synergies with both of them.

The empty space on the first floor would be a Private Library: members can check out, subscribe to resource and access them onsite or virtually; non-members it would basically be a 21st century book store but with no access to physical resources. I proposed Alexandria Yale as Chief Librarian for this operation, she has an undergraduate in English Lit from Purdue and is easily the most well-read person I know.

Downstairs would be NexLab, the first physical manifestation of NexDevices which is a company designed to build IOT+Cloud enabled devices. Jack Driscoll is the Chief Engineer of this company. NexLabs would provide laboratory/engineering capabilities to pair with the Private Library.

The upstairs would be a 21st century relaunch of the Tea Shop, high end sporting the most quality ingredients and service. I propose Mo’s Restaurants manages this property in a shadow role with a license from the Watts’ organization.

If there is room I would like to see a small Massage Therapy / Eastern Medicine practice under the Lightworks banner (which is currently in hiatus) to be run by Teresa Morden, who is a licensed massage therapist with nearly 10 years of professional experience, and Kimberly Victorine who recently graduated from Asia Pacific with an Eastern MD equivalency in Eastern Medicine and Acupuncture.

==What needs to be done==
First we need to figure out who is in and who is out. There are a lot of people who there who think I am delusional and making an embarrassment out myself. I think that with your backing Mr. Watts I can put together a fund raiser that will justify to everyone on this list to get involved. I do not want any money from the Watts or Vassallo enterprises, just institutional support. I would like to keep the date as 13 Nov 2017 for the fundraiser and open house and 6 Nov 2017 for a field day. It is important to what I believe higher order logic that the dates match up (note there are no years on the flyer, which was written in 2011).

Thank you for your time Mr. Watts and I look forward to hearing feedback, either way.



Thanks,

Acting Fleet Admiral Jason ωεςιγ ϲᴨϟλΣΠ Lind, STARFLEET IN BOLD
jason.lind@wwidew.net
414.788.2820
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Or Google: Jason Lind
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