The Urban Milwaukee authors have been closely following the destruction of the North Powerhouse along the Milwaukee River. We’ve accumulated a nice collection of photos tracking the demolition progress. The building was built in the late 1920s and used by the city to help distribute steam throughout downtown Milwaukee.

The building always looked like a potential site for development, especially with the highly successful Commerce Street Power Plant next door gleaming as the site of the Time Warner Milwaukee headquarters. Time was running short however, as the construction of the Manpower headquarters on the north side of the building had accelerated the need to do something.

The deal to get Manpower into downtown Milwaukee and a presented reason for the TIF granted to develop the Manpower building included that something had to be done to the North Powerhouse. With the Manpower building completed in 2007, the clock was ticking.

In September of 2007, it was announced that redevelopment of the building would begin later in the fall. That never materialized as costs were prohibitive Brewery Works Inc general manager Sam Denny stated.

In a better economy with a tenant lined up to occupy the 55,000 potential square-feet redevelopment may have actually occurred. Obviously the economy isn’t strong right now, and there are numerous other development projects happening in the near vicinity, including Ruvin’s Aloft Hotel just south across the block. The Aloft development already lost Cramer-Krasselt as an anchor tenant, demonstrating that there isn’t a long list of companies looking for large spaces in Milwaukee right now.

One positive of the destruction is that the building will be replaced with green space. This will hopefully be a temporary thing, as the site is still targeted for development at some point. But it will help encourage other development in the area in the meantime as the abandoned industrial feel of the Haymarket Square neighborhood is diminished and a more productive, walkable neighborhood takes foot currently led by the Manpower headquarters, Park East Enterprise Lofts, and Time Warner Headquarters.

It could have been a parking lot, but it won’t be, so Brewery Works deserves some praise for improving the neighborhood in some way.

See more photos.

Resolution 080271 would authorize the land sale of nineteen City of Milwaukee (RACM) properties to create three mixed-use developments within the Haymarket Square neighborhood. These three development would consist of the Sixth Street Market, Vineyard Place, and Walnut Hill. Sixth Street Market will contain an approximately 5,000 square foot food and convenience market. Vineyard Place will be a two-story building consisting of five live-work condominiums. Walnut Hill will be a four-story mixed-use building with first floor retail and on upper floors a mixture of office and residential units. Although the purchase prices was some $100,000 under the original asking price set in the City of Milwaukee’s Request for Proposal (RFP) this project is actually the combination of two separate RFP responders so it appears to be a win-win situation for the City of Milwaukee and all interested parties. Further this project is targeting a 30% Emerging Business Enterprise (EBE) goal which is higher than the City of Milwaukee’s guidelines for similar projects that utilize public financing. This resolution was approved by the committee and will now go before the full Common Council.

Alderman Zielinski brought forward resolution 051036 at the request of the majority of property owners in the area to create a Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Zone in Bay View along South Shore Drive. The intent of the overlay zone is to preserve the neighborhood in its current state which this resolution will achieve but it does appear to have significant impacts on both development and environmental issues. Impacts of this resolution include the prevention of new buildings higher than forty feet, prevention of flat roofs which may make developing green roofs more difficult and require a Board of Zoning Appeals (BOZA) request, and has limited the maximum lot coverage to 25% of the parcel which will severely limit density. This resolution was approved by the committee and will now go before the full Common Council.

Movement may finally be occurring towards completion of the Marine Terminal Loft’s Riverwal. Resolution 080267 updated the agreement with the City of Milwaukee regarding the portion that would connect to MIAD. Further it was pointed out that the Mandel Group has received a “concrete” or legitimate bid regarding construction costs which should allow the project to move forward. This resolution was approved by the committee and will now go before the full Common Council.

Resolution 080195 which relates to storm water management regulations and that had been refered to the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee after approval at the Public Works Committee was held to the call of the chair with no discussion.