Beerline Development Continues…

Although development within the Beerline corridor has slowed there is still ongoing construction. The Edge which is just now starting to rise out of the ground intends the first phase to be completed by November 2008. The Bluff Homes construction is nearing completion and more than half of the units have been sold. The completion of these developments during this market downturn show promise for the Beeline. Further in spite on the slowdown the future is still looking up for the Beerline as two condominium developments and additional Riverwalk expansion are still in the works. Specifically the potential developments include the Pleasant Street Market and Riverboat Landing. The most recent public report regarding Pleasant Street Market dated June 30, 2007 indicated it was undergoing final design review and obtaining permits but as of today no development of the site has occurred. The Riverboat Landing will have 67 residential units and two retail units once built. Currently only 14 residential units are under contract and with the broader residential market in a backslide it is likely that at least another 20 units will need to be sold prior to breaking ground. Additionally the design of the Brewers Point Apartments Riverwalk was approved during the September 10, 2007 City Plan Commission meeting and construction should begin soon. The development of the Beerline has been one of Milwaukee’s success stories in recent years and if the potential developments move forward it will be on track for continued growth in the future. Articles + Reference Pleasant Street Market Nehrings are in the market for a new venture Owners of Upscale Food Stores Plan New Grocery Along River Near Brewers Hill The Edge Construction gets under way on riverfront condo project

call for entries!

Looking for something to do now that the holidays are pretty much done with? Spend some off-time with the family reliving memories by going through old photos for the Milwaukee Moments photo contest. The Milwaukee Press Club announces a photo contest for the 162nd City of Milwaukee Birthday Party to be held January 29, 2008 at The Pfister Hotel. Residents and amateur photographers can pick out their best captured Milwaukee Moment and view contest rules and entry instructions on the web site. Submissions must be uploaded electronically. All FedEx/Kinko’s locations throughout metro Milwaukee are available to scan photos and assist residents in submitting their snapshots. The public may vote for the winning photo from ten selected finalists online January 18-25. The winner will be announced by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett at the City of Milwaukee’s 162nd Birthday Party. This year’s event will be held at the recently renovated Grand Ballroom of The Pfister Hotel. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the Milwaukee Press Club website. The “Milwaukee Moments” photo theme will be utilized throughout the event and the ten finalists will be present. For more information visit www.milwaukeemoments.com.

RSC & Associates development moves ahead without TIF

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 a parking structure believed to be required to support a retail tenant mix including McDonald’s, Subway, PotBelly’s, Noodles & Company and Qdoba. The City’s position was that TIF assistance was not required as this project wasn’t likely to act as a catalyst spurring other development within the city and that the City had already spent millions preparing the Park East land. Additionally a market study conducted by SB Friedman reinforced DCD’s position that within the Park East corridor subsidizing of business would likely lead to a shuffling of business around downtown and not new growth. Clearly RSC & Associates lost the debate with the City regarding TIF assistance and has finally moved forward with a new plan. The new plan and purchase agreement with the County for the 2.1-acre site requires the project to break ground in the next 90 days and will include two hotels, a retail component, 100 apartments and five town homes. It is unfortunate RSC & Associates didn’t stick with their original plan as it didn’t require TIF assistance and would be close to completion by now but it is positive to see the Park East moving forward with another development. Articles Sale of Park East site fulfills county Christmas wishes Milwaukee County closes on sale of Park East lands Milwaukee County closes on sale of Park East parcel Park East project gets tentative start time Momentum suddenly builds in the Park East RSC & Associates to fund own economic analysis City balks at cash for Park East project The Park East Runaround GJLN: City Committee Votes to Compel Project Feasibility Study Developing the Park East Land Chicago group to win bid for Park East parcel

funny stuff in January at the Pabst

Although not a household stand-up name like Jerry Seinfeld or George Carlin, Jim Gaffigan is one of the funniest, strangest, most acerbic and affable comedians on the circuit today – which is probably why the Pabst Theater took a risk in booking him as the featured act on New Year’s Eve (the December 30 date was added when demand became high) instead of some hip young musicians like last year’s party with cult rock group Cake.

2 Mile Challenge

SANY0005 Originally uploaded by ClifBar&Co The 2 Mile Challenge is an excellent idea that I happened to stumble across on the internets. As the site states “40% of United States urban travel is 2 miles or less. Ride your bike to fight global warming.” Their site draws a two-mile circle around your house using Google Maps and challenges you to make all the trips inside that circle by car bicycle (or by foot). Global warming aside, if you and your neighbors take this concept to heart the quality of life and land values in your neighborhood are going to soar. It’s going to be a lot quieter without all the cars moving, you’re going to be a lot thinner burning all those calories moving yourself, and things will be a lot safer because you’ll have pedestrians doubling as crime watchdogs and deterrents. Not to mention the enhanced sense of awareness you’ll have by eliminating the glass shield between you and your surroundings. I already engage in this practice, do you? With the soaring cost of gas, what do you have to lose? Update: Brian Head was the first reader to point out that I advocated using cars for short trips on accident, instead of long ones.  I need to quit writing at 4 a.m.

Merry Christmas Milwaukeeans

Milwaukee County (and the City of Milwaukee) got what it wanted for Christmas with the official sale of the first plot of land in the Park East neighborhood. Did you?

Word on the Street (12.24.2007)

Random tidbits found on the internets… Milwaukee Development Update brings us news and insight of a building going up at 1530 North Jackson just north of the Pick ‘N’ Save parking lot and Lyon St.  Despite living just around the corner from it, I have yet to make it over to take pictures, but look forward to doing that following my return to Milwaukee. Milwaukee Development Update also has changed addresses going from milwaukeedevelopment.blogspot.com to www.mkedevelopment.com. The Brewery Project LLC, led by Joseph Zilber, officially closed their first sale.  While numerous deals have been announced or rumored, Milwaukeeans Charles Trainer and Max Dermond have purchased the 55,000-square-foot Building 10 together as Boiler House LLC.  They’re saying Albion Group Architects will move into the building by the end of 2008 and that a big announcement is coming in January of 2008. The Spawl-fueled Pabst Farms mall plans are back up and running with announcement of Developers Diversified Realty Corp as the new developer.  They’re still planning to open Pabst Farms Town Centre by 2010.

Holiday Alchemy

Park East Square Moving Forward

Park East Square sign Originally uploaded by repowers The first phase of the development of Park East Square appears ready to begin. On Friday, Milwaukee County announced that they had completed the sale (read: RSC & Associates LLC exercised their option to purchase) of a 2.1 acre parcel of land at the western edge of the Pick ‘N’ Save parking lot and just north of Convent Hill for $2,725,000. To be exact, that’s the plot of land bordered by Lyon St, Jefferson St, Ogden St, and Milwaukee St. Nothing I can find indicates when construction will start, but since they purchased the land I would imagine it’s imminent. The development will include a 122-room Hyatt Place, 102-room Hyatt Summerfield Suites, along with 105 apartments and retail space. Back in March there was talk of the first phase of the development (this parcel) including 126 high-end apartments, a 148-room boutique hotel and 80,000 square feet of office, retail, restaurant and entertainment space if RSC & Associates LLC could get $9.2 million in a TIF from the city. Typical of developments of this scale in the Park East neighborhood, the TIF request was not granted. President Richard Curto said he would drop the hotel if that was the case, but clearly he thought better of that idea. He instead dropped a significant amount of retail space and went with more hotel rooms, which dropped costs significantly by eliminating the need for a massive parking structure. The final value of the development will be around $65 million, and as reported in September will include 6,900 square feet of retail space. Construction was originally supposed to begin in November, but financing hasn’t been easy to come by for anyone lately, and explains the delay. The plan in September called for construction on the hotels to begin first and take 14 months, followed by construction of the apartments (which includes 5 town houses), which will take another 15 months. I would imagine this is the same today, but with a pushed back start-date. According to the September Journal Sentinel article about the current development. The development will pay $21.5 million in property taxes over 10 years, RSC estimates, and would create 230 construction jobs and 64 to 74 hotel and retail jobs. The original plan, which the city favored …called for no public cash. That smaller project would pay $10.7 million in property taxes, and create 250 construction jobs and 50 to 75 retail jobs. The plan RSC wanted that included city financing …would generate $21.6 million in property taxes over 10 years, create 310 construction jobs and provide 150 to 200 retail and hotel jobs. The property taxes would pay back the city’s loan. RSC & Associates and the city both deserve applause for creating a development that will not only avoid the creation of an expensive TIF district, but will generate nearly the same amount of property tax revenue for the city. On top of that, the smaller retail space is more consistent […]

Gould Takes Journal Buyout, Rips Grohmann Museum One More Time

Whitney Gould took an early retirement buyout from Journal Communications a little over a month ago.  Her send off column was titled “Retiring, not tiring of quality design.” Ever since moving to Milwaukee three years ago I’ve enjoyed her reporting on issues involving building design. My views began to disagree with hers when she started to question the restoration of the former check processing center on the corner of Broadway and State St into the Grohmann Museum, a museum dedicated to the showcasing of men (and women) at work throughout time, at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). I began to wonder if she cared that the new Grohmann Museum would finally build a book-end for the MSOE campus with the Kern Center, rehab an underused and unattractive building downtown, and build a transition piece from Milwaukee City Hall north to the Kern Center and Park East neighborhood.  Add to that the fact that the financing was entirely provided by Eckhart Grohmann.  In fact Robert & Patricia Kern and Eckhart Grohmann deserve nothing but admiration and applause for their commitment to producing well-rounded engineers in downtown Milwaukee. To be fair, Whitney Gould does address some of the these facts and does give a fair amount of praise to Grohmann for his contribution.  I do disagree with her on a few things though. Her appraisal of the building as a cheap impersonation of the style of a bygone era is lacking in insight.  One needs to only walk from City Hall, past the Grohmann Museum, and to the Kern Center to see the bridge the museum forms between the past and present architectural styles.  Unlike many other bland glass buildings in many other cities, Grohmann and the architects at Uihlein Wilson created something distinctly Milwaukee and distinctly MSOE.   The building meshes perfectly with the Kern Center both inside and out thanks to Uihlein Wilson designing both buildings, and forms a southern book end of the MSOE campus on Broadway to match the Kern Center’s north anchor position.  MSOE should be praised for finally developing a physical identity, especially while both Marquette and UWM expand theirs in a much more public fashion. She, along with other members of the art community, also seem to take offense that no one that works at the museum has true art credentials.  Speaking as someone who has been in the museum many times, the artwork is displayed just as it in any museum and curator John Kopmeier is just as qualified to discuss the content of the collection as anyone with an art degree. My final point of disagreement with Gould is over her obsession with the Nazi art work in the collection.  She seems to hold this belief that the Nazi-attachment to the artwork is hidden from viewers, it’s not.  It is not outwardly stated that “hey, this painting could contain Nazi slaves”, but if you ask someone they will tell you.  They will also tell you that the paintings featuring Egyptians might contain slaves […]

Word on the Street (12.21.2007)

Information from the infosphere… Seattle mayor Greg Nickels is working on a plan that will encourage all city employees to use public transportation, by giving the free transit passes.  Milwaukee should get behind this. The Daily Reporter has a good look at the issues affecting the 27th Street ramp off of Interstate 94. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has made a significant donation to promote the improvement of the Harambee neighborhood.  It would be great to see more companies jump on board to help the process along. Neal Peirce has a piece on the rebirth of rail as a well-traveled mode for inter-city movement.  He mentions how a leader is Frank Busalacchi, who ironically has been nothing but car happy in the past couple of years (failure of KRM funding source, expansion of I-94). But state initiatives are also vital. Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi heads the “States for Passenger Rail Coalition” of 30 state transportation departments appealing for an 80-20 federal-state funding split to put some real steam behind rail expansion. The National Corridors Initiative is hosting a conference, “Carmichael Conference On The Future of American Transportation“, in St. Louis discussing the promotion and expansion of inter-city rail travel in the United States.  I won’t be able to attend because of financial reasons (if you have $300 to pay for the conference and hotel, let me know), but look forward to seeing the results.  Inter-city transit is a huge boost for urban areas and Milwaukee could certainly use a boost with more linking with nearby Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, and Racine. An intelligent look at how individual route management might work in New York City and does work in Copenhagen.  MCTS could use something like this for areas of its system to improve service.  Bus design and management should certainly be different for routes that serve UWM and Marquette vs those that serve primarily the workforce.

SITE call for proposals

IN:SITE, a local organization fostering temporary public art in Milwaukee County, and Sherman Park Community Association are pleased to announce that they are collaborating on temporary public art installations in the Sherman Park neighborhood for 2008. There will be two five-month cycles of temporary public art, the first in April and the second in September of 2008. One project for each cycle will have a community involvement component. In addition, one project for each cycle will feature IN:SITE mentoring an emerging artist from the Sherman Park area. Currently, IN:SITE is accepting Spring 2008 proposals for the following sites in Sherman Park: Sherman Park (four city blocks, bounded by Burleigh on the north, Locust on the south, Sherman Boulevard on the west, and 41st Street on the east): This site is open to all artists, emerging or established, though the project must retain a community involvement component. IN:SITE encourages using the park’s pathways and using materials that will last up to four or five months. Sherman Park Community Association Office (3526 W. Fond du Lac Avenue): This site is only open to artists residing in the Sherman Park area. Interested artists should attend the meeting on Saturday, January 5, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. at Sherman Perk Coffee Shop (4924 W. Roosevelt). Please be sure to go to IN:SITE’s website for detailed descriptions and images of the specific sites. Once you have an idea of what you want to propose, submit a thumbnail sketch. To do so, fill out the proposal form and submit via email or by mail at P.O. Box 151, Milwaukee, WI, 53201. Submissions are due by February 1, 2008. The installations have to be in place before the May 3 opening. Please think inside the realm of TEMPORARY public art, outside of the permanent public art box. Your project could be a mural, sculpture, or a video. Since the stipends are not large ($200-$500), think about appropriate use of time and materials. Funding for the art is made possible by a matching grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board (WAB) with funds from the Challenge America program of the National Endowment for the Arts. The money from the WAB, supported in part by funds from the State of Wisconsin, is matched with funding through SPCA’s involvement in the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative sponsored by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. VITAL wishes you luck with your proposals!