The former Schlitz brew house in Milwaukee, WI, will be demolished, and other former brewery buildings converted to offices will be remodeled, under a $30 million renovation plan for Schlitz Park business park.

The project, to start in September, calls for remodeling 350,000 square feet, and creating more natural lighting, exposed ceilings and open, flexible work space, developer Gary Grunau said at a Monday news conference.

The work, to be completed by January 2013, will focus on four buildings that have most of the vacant space at Schlitz Park, which has a 20% vacancy rate.

The renovations will include environmentally sustainable features, including making Schlitz Park more accessible to people biking to work, Grunau said. Schlitz Park recently installed a charging station for battery-powered cars.

The remodeling, Grunau said, will help Schlitz Park retain current tenants, which include Aurora Health Care Inc., Fidelity National Information Services Inc. and U.S. Bank, and attract new businesses from the suburbs, Grunau said.

The brew house, empty since the Schlitz brewery closed in 1982, will be torn down because it has major structural problems, Grunau said. He said he and his partners, the Sampson family, have spent around $4 million trying to put various uses in the building over the past several years.