A ceremonial groundbreaking took place at the corner of Pleasant and Water streets today for the Portrait and Silhouette buildings at The North End, collectively known as Phase Two of The North End. A number of public officials were on hand representing the large number of public funding sources required to get the project off the ground (or more aptly, in the ground) with the state of private financing for development.

After today’s news, nationally 2010 might go down as the year of high-speed rail, but here in Milwaukee it just might be the year of the Park East. By looking at the economy and listening to all of the talk of doom and gloom one would think this isn’t very likely, but it sure seems that momentum is building in the Park East corridor.

Milwaukee should explore how land sales are managed in order to achieve the highest and best use. If Milwaukee can become better at converting land from public and vacant to private and developed it will only be a benefit to the entire city by building a better urban fabric and raising the city tax base.