North end of the new Beerline Trail

On Wednesday evening, the opening of the Beerline Trail was celebrated with a ceremonial walk from Gordon Park to the Wheelhouse property. The 4000-foot, paved trail connects the Beerline neighborhood, North Avenue Dam Pedestrian Bridge, Commerce Street, and Humboldt Avenue bridge through the river corridor to Gordon Park and much of Riverwest. The trail will facilitate a better connection for non-motorized travelers between the downtown area and Riverwest. The trail also turns a former railroad corridor into a welcoming and accessible way for visitors to interact with the Milwaukee River.

The effort to build the trail dates back to 2002, and was a partnership between the River Revitalization Foundation, Milwaukee County Parks department, Riverwest Neighborhood Association, National Park Service, and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

The project required a number of different sponsors to happen. Labor has been provided by the City of Milwaukee’s Earn and Learn Milwaukee program, allowing high school students to get paid work experience.  An Eagle Scout project included the construction of a pathway from the future trail down to the river’s west bank and low lying trails. Over 1,000 trees have been planted in the corridor since 2002, including 60 the past week. The tree planting has been done in conjunction with the removal of buckthorn, an invasive species.  A significant land acquisition was made recently on the south end of the trail, as the River Revitalization Foundation acquired the 2.8 acre former Melanec’s Wheelhouse restaurant property for $1.4 million.  The DNR awarded the foundation a $700,000 stewardship grant, and MMSD paid the foundation $400,000 for the a conservation easement restricting development on the property. The foundation will demolish the building and parking lot to turn the land into a park space. The boat landing will be preserved thanks to a $100,000 donation from the Kiwanis Club.

The trail is an excellent addition to the city, and is yet another small piece that fills a gap in Milwaukee’s pedestrian infrastructure that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Beerline B Apartments

General Capital Group plans to break ground on the 140-unit Beerline B apartment project, located at the long vacant corner of Commerce St. and Pleasant St., in November.  The development project was awarded $2,345,310 in WHEDA tax credits to develop 119 workforce units, and 21 market rate units.  The project will include a new public Riverwalk segment, which will be built using up to $1 million in city funds that was approved on a 4 to 0 vote with 1 abstaining by the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee on October 5th, 2010.

There will be preliminary site work during October with foundation construction starting in November.  The project timeline also projects installing the dock wall this Fall, with the entire project taking about thirteen months to complete.  Additionally, the complex may include a public kiosk with the history of the Beerline.  The Riverwalk component will now go before the full Common Council for approval.

Drawing of the proposed riverwalk segment

The riverwalk segment for the proposed Beerline B Apartments will go before the Milwaukee City Plan Commission on August 23rd. General Capital Group is bringing the riverwalk segment forward for approval before the entire project. The 140-unit project, which recently was awarded $2,345,310 in WHEDA tax credits for 119 low-income units, will occupy the corner of Commerce St and Pleasant St. The site was one-time the location of the proposed Pleasant Street Market anchored around a grocery store, which appeared to halt after the anchor tenant signed a deal on the other side of the river.

The Beerline B Apartments riverwalk segment is the missing piece that will connect all of the Beerline B neighborhood with Schlitz Park and the rest of Westown, East Town, and the Historic Third Ward via the Milwaukee Riverwalk.

Project Files

• Project Narrative (PDF)
• Project Photos (PDF)
• Project Drawings (PDF)
• Beerline TIF Update (12/31/2009)

The Rivianna, at 236 S. Water St., will be made up of three 15-story towers, have up to 186 residential units and 236 hotel rooms.  As had been pointed out at the City Plan Commission meeting theRivianna project no longer includes helipads, or the waterfall feature.  The designed has been further defined since it was last before the committee.  The balconies are now inset into the building, the loading docks are hidden in the bulk of the building, and the Riverwalk will feature an elevator to insure ADA compliance.  It was also indicated that the proposal will still contain some affordable units.  The construction itself will create about 1,000 jobs of which 100% will be union labor, and the project will adhere to standards of M.O.R.E. ordinance.

Alderman Bauman, and residents from the Marine Terminal Lofts, which is located across the river, spoke in opposition to the project, generally due to the building’s height being taller than buildings in the Third Ward.  AldermanBauman stated his opposition saying that “the built environment is very important,” and that in his opinion “this is an example of bad urban planning.

Alderman Witkowiak responded to the concerns of the residents of the Marine Terminal Lofts saying that “most of the people on the south side of the river don’t feel that way.”  He explained that his constituents don’t think it should be consistent on both side, and he added his constituents believe “let’s be a little more creative,” and “let’s be different than they are in the Third Ward.”  Both approvals being requested at this committee meeting regarding theRivianna project were approved and will now go before the full Common Council.

Gorman & Company, and the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation were before the committee seeking an amendment to the Detailed Planned Development known as Villard Square.  The proposed mixed-use building will have space for the new the Villard Avenue Library as well as 47 apartments.  Although the library has yet to sign a lease for the space all intentions are to open the library in the Spring of 2011.

Alderman Witkowiak spoke in strong support of the project saying that “this maybe a model of libraries in the future,” and added “I’m looking forward to seeing this project.”  Paula Kiley, the Director of the Milwaukee Public Library, explained that this mixed-use concept is being explored, and that “other libraries have been identified for similar treatment.”  This file was approved and will now go before the full Common Council.

A Riverwalk Development Agreement with Schlitz RiverCenter LLC was before the committee to layout the terms regarding the redevelopment of the Riverwalk at 1505 North Rivercenter Drive.  The second amendment to the District 22, Beerline B, TIF was also before the committee.  This amendment would expand the boundary to include five additional parcels.  It also would fund 70% of the cost to bring the portion of Riverwalk, at 1505 North Rivercenter Drive, into compliance with the Riverwalk guidelines, and complete additional repairs.  As this section was built in 1998, prior to the guidelines, this agreement will also grant the City of Milwaukee a permanent public access easement.

This amendment also cleared the way for funding if a new section of Riverwalk is constructed at intersection of Brady St. and Water St.  The development would be eligible to receive a grant from the expanded TIF.  It was noted that with this expansion the TIF would still fully recover its costs by 2015, which would be five years prior to the statutory limit.  Both of these were approved and will now go before the full Common Council.

The husband and wife team also owns Nehring’s Sendik’s, 4027 N. Oakland Ave., in Shorewood, V. Richards store at 17630 W. Blue Mound Road, Brookfield,  and G. Groppi Food Market, at 1441 S. Russell Ave., in Bay View neighborhood.

The location of the store certainly signals that the Pleasant Street Market plans for the end of Commerce Street in the Beerline neighborhood are on hold.  The development had slotted a grocery store by the Nehring’s as the anchor tenant.  Brewery Works, Inc has not been able to break ground on the project, and it appears the Nehring’s found a space that will allow them to serve the same, if not a bigger market.

The Nehring Family Marketplace will not be the only grocery store in the Van Buren Street corridor.  In fact the north-south corridor will now have three grocery stores within a half-mile stretch.  Metro Market, a 52,000 square-foot upscale super market, Pick ‘N’ Save, a 40,000 square-foot super market, and now Nehring Family Marketplace, a 15,000 square-foot upscale grocery store.  This is before including Glorioso’s on the eastern half of Brady Street, whose owners are suing to complete their plans to expand in a building across the street.

This is  is the densest-populated area in the state of Wisconsin, and all of the existing stores seem to be constantly busy, so it does not appear the addition of another store over-saturates the market.  Furthermore, each store delivers something a little different than the others.

It will be interesting to see what the competition between stores brings for the area.  It should help to continue the positive redevelopment of under-utilized land in the area.

2. Bike racks on buses, they’re coming.

3. The Milwaukee RiverWalk, take a stroll along the RiverWalk where the built environment meets the natural environment.  It’s not just for walking though, eat to your hearts content at Rock Bottom Brewery, the Milwaukee Ale House, or the Water Buffalo (by no means a complete list of RiverWalk eateries).   Lakefront Brewery has a nice RiverWalk segment and they serve beer, check that out.

4. RiverSplash gets the festival season going early, starting on June 5th.  Hopefully there will be a few more street closings this year to calm the crowds.  Seriously, we close way too few streets downtown for events.  If pedestrian overcrowding was a concern, just make the area bigger.

5. The Bastille Days run.  An athletic urbanist’s dream, what other event lets you run through the streets of downtown Milwaukee with only the fear of getting hit by a stroller?  Milwaukee needs more runs in the city.  The lakefront is great, but nothing compares to running through the city streets with 10,000 other people.  North Avenue?  Brady Street?  Westown?  All would be fun.

What did I miss?

Of course that’s not always the case, with the Quadracci Pavilion being the best example.  You of course know that building better for the world renown architect that designed it, Santiago Calatrava.

There is something else in downtown Milwaukee that we beat Chicago to, the riverwalk.  Chicago has really only been building out a riverwalk system since just before the turn of the millenium, while Milwaukee has been working on such a system since the 1980s.

Chicago is working to expand their system this year, hoping to complete portions near Michigan Avenue by June.

Things aren’t finished in Milwaukee either, this year we should finally see the construction of the segment connecting the Brewer’s Point Apartments with Lakefront Brewery and Trostel Square and a segment with the new construction of The Edge.  The Aloft Hotel will include an accompanying RiverWalk segment as the building rises. With time, we’ll also see a large expansion of the RiverWalk as The North End “Neighborhood by Design” comes together.

Now let’s just get rid of this cold weather, so we can get back to using the RiverWalk.

One was created by Erik West, and is a composition of tilt-shift photography featuring Milwaukee’s lower east, downtown, and the airport.  Now that’s impressive in itself, but the fact that it was done during a snow storm makes it all the better.  A rare chance to view the city in a completely different way than you normally would, with many shots taken from parking garages in and around downtown.

Fire (Jimmy Edgar Remix) from Erik West on Vimeo.

Hat tip to Mary Louise Schumacher, who linked to the video on her Art City blog.

The second is of the fun that can be had between the Beerline and Riverwest in Kilbourn Park.  Kudos to reader Sam Dodge for putting it together.

Snow Day 2009 from Sam Dodge on Vimeo.

They found a couple really good things from the perspective of an urbanist (or anyone that lives in Milwaukee for that matter).  First, that the condo owners in 88% of the cases are using their condos as their primary residence.  A sign that they’re likely spending and investing their time and money in Milwaukee, and most likely in the very neighborhood in which they reside.  Second, 45% of respondents said location was the most important factor in purchasing their condo.  A great sign that things are working in some of Milwaukee’s densest neighborhoods.

The study also isn’t some fly by night guess at what condo owners might be like, 2,606 unit owners were contacted, and 804 responses were collected.

A couple of other key highlights include that for residents using the condo as their primary residence 45% previously lived in the city of Milwaukee.  That number grows to 65% if you consider all of Milwaukee County.  Nearly 10% of owners are from Waukesha County.  Only 4% of condo owners using their condo as a primary residence previously lived in the Chicago area, but 18% of condo owner’s last primary residence was out of state.

Only 2% of total condo owners live in the Chicago area and don’t don’t use their condo as a primary residence.  Out of all the condo owners that responded, only 4% of condo owners don’t use it as their primary residence and live in the Milwaukee metro area, with almost half of them living in Milwaukee County

In what did they live before?  The study found that 38% lived in apartments, and an equal and opposite 38% lived in single-family homes.

What does the study show?  You can make a lot of assumptions from the study, but you can’t deny that it appears people want to live in Milwaukee.

You can read the entire study yourself at the UWM CUIR website.

Site #1 – The Prospect Mall
Actual Location: Prospect Avenue between Ivanhoe Place & Kenilworth Place
What’s There Now: Former Prospect Mall, currently empty, along with surface parking lot across Farwell
Note: We have heard that this project would potentially only use the east side of Prospect, the surface parking lot and Qdoba. We are unsure how it would integrate into the currently empty mall. If this is true, it could change our ranking (see bottom of article) of the site.  UPDATE We contacted Boulder Venture to clarify this question but they are unable to comment on the proposal at this time.

Pros

• Close to other dorm (Kenilworth) and close to campus
• On an existing bus route (30)
• Uses a currently unused property
• Would help area businesses by delivering 500 new customers
• Would please students to be close to other students

Cons

• Would create another cluster of students possibly creating more neighborhood backlash

Site #2 – Near Brady Street Site
Actual Location: 1744 N. Farwell Avenue, Southeast Corner of North Farwell Avenue and East Royall Place
What’s There Now: Surface Parking Lot

Pros

• Would deliver 500 new customers to Brady Street area
• Replaces existing surface parking lot
• Close to entertainment for students
• On existing bus route (30)

Cons

• Would be furthest dorm from campus

Site #3 – Near Beerline Site
Actual Location: 1887 N. Water Street, just west of Humboldt Avenue
What’s There Now: Empty Warehouse Building, former home of Pro Graphics Inc

Pros

• It’s near the Good Life which is fun to eat at? (and Wolskis)
• It’s a short walk to Brady Street (although not as close as the other site)
• Next to river

Cons

• Would draw continued opposition from nearby condo owners
• Site could be better capitalized by condo development
• Next door to empty Gallun Tannery (wouldn’t necessarily encourage condo development there)
• Close to an existing transit route (10), but transit route does not go through campus
• Awkward walk to Riverview, despite being just across the river
• Potentially difficult spot for shuttle bus to pick-up/drop-off from.

Site #4 – Hometown Gas Station
Actual Location: 1436 North Avenue
What’s There Now: Abandoned gas station

Pros

• On North Avenue near entertainment district
• On existing transit route (21)
• Inbetween both Riverview and Kenilworth dorms
• Next to river
• Easy for current UWM Shuttle to stop here on route from Riverview

Cons

• Would draw ire of many residents because of Milwaukee River Overlay District due to its spot along river
• Nearby residents would certainly raise a fuss about parking, congestion, regardless if it were true or not.

Site #5 – Humboldt Avenue Site
Actual Location: 2628, 2650, and 2660 North Humboldt Avenue, just south of Center Street
What’s There Now: Collection of buildings

Pros

• On existing bus route that goes downtown, but not to campus (10)
• Next to river
• Would integrate well if Riverview shuttle went up Humboldt, then down Locust to get to campus
• Would help revitalize businesses along Center Street

Cons

• Would draw ire of many residents because of Milwaukee River Overlay District due to its spot along river
• Close, but yet not, to Riverview dorm, awkward walk
• Not a good connection to campus without UWM shuttle
• Would certainly irritate neighbors with noise of freshman students walking to keg parties in the area

Site #6 – Holton Terrace
Actual Location: 2825 N. Holton Street, at the intersection of Holton and Locust
What’s There Now: Green space adjacent to Holton Terrace public housing

Pros

• Would utilize what is currently underutilized land, which long-term may be catalytic to other development along Locust and Holton

Cons

• Perception of being next to public housing facility would be negative, regardless of how safe the facility is.
• Neighborhood would likely reject students and be irritated with their noise
• Not near any retail or entertainment districts

Site #7 – Tracks Tavern and Grille
Actual Location: 1020 E. Locust Street
What’s There Now: Tracks Tavern and Grille, surface parking lots, and a few apartments

Pros

• Would replace surface parking
• Would be near existing new development (Alterra Coffee on Humboldt)
• Would be catalytic to other development near the intersection
• Would integrate well if Riverview shuttle went up Humboldt, then down Locust to get to campus
• Would likely not generate resistant from neighbors
• Connected to campus during school year with bus (60)
• Next to two parks

Cons

• Awkwardly close, but yet separated from main campus
• Not near other entertainment/retail options other than Alterra [there are some bars on locust]
• Next to two parks that are overly big and underlit at night, might not be well used by students at night out of fear

Site #8 – Heinemann’s Commissary
Actual Location: 1300 E Locust Street
What’s There Now: Heinemann’s Commissary located in a small building

Pros

• Would integrate well if Riverview shuttle went up Humboldt, then down Locust to get to campus
• Connected to campus during school year with bus (60)

Cons

• Small lot, tall building
• Would likely draw opposition from residents over Milwaukee River Overlay District despite tall public housing facility next door
• Along busy street
• Close, but awkwardly far from main campus because of long Locust Street bridge
• Would not be positioned well to generate neighboring new development
• Students would be fairly isolated, with longer walks to any retail or entertainment.

Best sites currently for the new UWM freshman dormitory

1. Prospect Mall Site
2. Near Brady Street Site
3. Hometown Site

Worst sites currently for the new UWM freshman dormitory

1. Near Beerline Site
2. Holton Terrance
3. Humboldt Avenue Site

View Larger Map

Julie Lawrence at OnMilwaukee.com drew my attention to this excellent community development taking place along the Kinnickinnic River on the south side of urban Milwaukee, the Kinnickinnic River Trail. The trail is in the early stages of development and will have a southern terminus at the river and 6th Street (near its intersection with Cleveland St) and at Water St and 1st Street on the northern end.

The trail, while still in its infancy, will hopefully include a restoration of the river to a more natural state with the removal of the concrete channeling.

Like many other developments occurring in Milwaukee (the Riverwalk, Menomonee Valley restoration, and the Beerline neighborhood come to mind), the KK River Trail is just one of many ways in which Milwaukee is learning to embrace its natural assets. The developments are all the more special because they’re actual functional ways to move around the city without a car, which is due in large part to the dense development surrounding the rivers.

Groundwork Milwaukee has provided a PDF with all you could ever want to know about what was discussed in planning for the trail.

I’ll try to learn more over the next few days as to what the actual status of the trail is (it’s a little bit hard to figure out with the information online).

I took the map out of the PDF and put it online as a JPG image in case you wanted to see the proposed route.