Meet MAC Member Ryan Pattee

Member since: 2022

Occupation: Owner of Pattee Group, commercial real estate and co-owner Goodland Extracts 

Resides in: Muskego, born in Oshkosh

Family: Wife Kelley and two kids: 8-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter

Hobbies: Golf, coaching youth sports, snowboarding, attending sporting events. 

Claim to Fame: Milwaukee Business Journal “40 Under 40” Recipient 

A project he’s proud of: Transformed a decrepit bar building at 13th and Oklahoma into a tea shop after talking to the neighbors and asking what they wanted. 

I’m a sucker for a good “Small-waukee” story. I was showing off my new book and Ryan looked at the cover and said “Hey that’s my mural! I mean, I commissioned that mural on my building.” It’s the very-Instagrammable blue and yellow “Greetings from MKE” mural on Florida Street by artist Fred Kames.

Even better than a “Small-waukee” story is one of a self-made man. Ryan started his own import and online commerce company while working as a sales manager at a car dealership (at the tender age of 19). He sold that business and with his earnings, was able to buy a dozen foreclosed properties and taught himself the business of real estate. He sold five of the properties to pay off the loan and that opened his eyes to the power of real estate. 

Real estate had been his sole focus since 2012, until he decided to start a business with a few friends in 2019. The other owners are a chemist, an electrical engineer and an operations guy. “Our skillsets lined up to tackle the industry of CBD extraction. And of course we see the growth opportunity when marijuana is legalized one day in Wisconsin,” Ryan says. 

They had just finished the business plan for Goodland Extracts right before COVID hit, so they went to work raising capital. Then they built out the facility and figured out how to set up and run the equipment to produce oil.

Goodland is the first and only hemp manufacturer in the city. The Bay View warehouse stores 80-90,000 pounds of hemp at any given time and manufactures 400,000 pounds of hemp from a variety of Midwest growers. That actually represents 60 percent of all the hemp in Wisconsin. 

They decided to also offer a line of retail products to have a brand presence. CBD sparkling water is one product that they thought would appeal to everyone. Ryan calls it “A more evolved way to unwind and mellow you out,” rather than Wisconsin’s heavy drinking habit. Find the Goodland CBD Sparkling Water at Sendiks and 400 other retailers across the state. 

Back to his full time job, Ryan and his wife Kelley run the Pattee Group. Her accounting background is an asset that complements his creativity. Aside from having always been passionate about real estate, Ryan loves that his contributions to the city will outlast him. “It’s a blank palette and you can put your spin on it,” he says. They’ve tackled commercial, residential, and mixed use development. Their first new build of apartments on the East Side is in the former space of RC’s Tavern.

Ryan says: “I look at our city like a house. Downtown is the living room, but there’s kitchens, bedrooms, and hallways that give our city flavor and should be highlighted. I love all of it.”

His dream for retirement: opening a gourmet donut shop with a snarky name. 

Here’s another nice Biz Times interview with Ryan.