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.

A new development team, the Milwaukee River Hotel LLC which includes Ed Carow of Wave Development, has taken over development of the $27 million Aloft hotel. This change in the development team has visibly jump started the project.

Resolution 071564 proposed the vacation of two “paper” alleys to support the Palomar development project within the Park East. Apparently Alderman Bauman read Mary Louise Schumacher’s article in the Journal Sentinel, History lost in Park East bait-and-switch, because he stated that “I see this as a bait and switch” referring to the dramatic change [...]

On December 21st 2007 RSC & Associates signed an agreement to purchase a parcel of land, known as Block 26, in the Park East Freeway corridor from Milwaukee County. It was believed at the time of the sale that RSC & Associates would break ground on two new hotels within a 90 days. [...]

The nine-story Aloft Hotel and condominium project is now on track to break ground in April with a target completion date of May 2009. To facilitate pre-sales Ruvin Development has launched The Residences Above website which includes floor plans, pricing and contact information for potential buyers. According to the website the nine condominium [...]

Articles from the past week covering development in Milwaukee.
JS Online: Approve the compact and protect the Great Lakes
JS Online: Editorial: Climb on board or get out of the way
JS Online: Mortgage refinancing rush is on
JS Online: Sounds of silence
JS Online: Developer looks to expand student housing complex
JS Online: Partners hope custard stand sweetens North Ave. [...]

Over the last year a debate raged over the question of “to TIF or not to TIF?” RSC & Associates not only requested city financing but demanded publicly that their Park East Square project required $9.5 million of TIF assistance to be economically feasible. $6.8 million of this city subsidy would of been to build [...]