A Milwaukee organization that provides administrative services to nonprofits, and two of its subsidiaries, are moving to the Historic Third Ward from downtown’s west side.
The Difference Principle Inc. in December 2024 bought a two-story, 11,000-square-foot building, 159-165 N. Broadway, and an adjacent parking lot, 151 N. Broadway, for $2.7 million, according to city assessment records.
Difference Principle is now renovating the building’s top floor into its new offices, as well as offices for JusticePoint Inc., which provides pretrial screening and other criminal court services, and Sirona Recovery Inc., which provides substance abuse and mental health case management services.
That work includes an exterior ramp to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. That needs approval from the Historic Third Ward Architectural Review Board, which is to consider the plan at its April 15 meeting.
The renovations will cost around $600,000 to $700,000, said Nick Sayner, Difference Principle CEO and co-founder.
The three organizations hope to move to the Third Ward from 250 W. Highland Ave. by August, Sayner told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Together, around 80 to 90 employees will be based at the new headquarters, he said.
Most will be working in the field, Sanyer said, with around 20 employees based full time in the Third Ward.
The new headquarters will help accommodate JusticePoint’s recent expansion of its services beyond Wisconsin and Minnesota to six counties in Michigan, Sayner said.
Difference Principle reported $3.38 million of revenue, and net income of $431,578 in 2024, according to ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, which complies information from annual reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
That compares to $2.75 million of revenue, and net income of $105,386 in 2023.
Along with operating JusticePoint and Sirona Recovery, Difference Principle provides accounting services to other nonprofits.
Difference Principle’s growth comes even as a contract with Milwaukee’s Municipal Court was canceled in mid-2025.
That came after a Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruling in May upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by JusticePoint seeking to prevent the contract from being terminated.
JusticePoint worked with Municipal Court defendants to obtain counseling and community service as an alternative to incarceration.
The Third Ward building, which has two retailers on its first floor, was built in 1908 as a warehouse for manufacturer Toepfer & Sons Inc., according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee nonprofits moving to renovated Historic Third Ward building
Reporting by Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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