Redevelopment underway in Bronzeville

Milwaukee’s Bronzeville redevelopment project, which stalled with the economy, is no longer dormant. The Vangard Group is resurrecting the project with the revitalization of the historic Inner City Arts Council building, the first since the Bronzeville district was created in 2005.

At 642 W. North Ave., the building is on western edge of the border of Bronzeville, once a thriving arts and entertainment district frequented by the likes of Milton Johnson, a successful painter and illustrator who now lives in Boston. The building is easily recognized by the vibrant mural on the side facing Interstate 43, a mural painted by Renaldo Hernandez that depicts various fine art disciplines.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony announcing the project, Kaylan Haywood, Vangard’s president, said the Inner City Arts Council property has been revamped for commercial use. He said that working with the city, Vangard was able to take a blighted property and put it back on the tax rolls. As important, he said, it may well jumpstart further development of Bronzeville, defined as an area bounded by Garfield Avenue, Center Street, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and 7th Street.

Said 6th District Alderwoman Milele Coggs, who attended the ceremony: “At a time when so many projects are not getting done, this is getting done.”

Both Coggs and Mayor Tom Barrett commended Haywood for having the vision to renovate the 1876 building, which has served as a fire station, library and, of course, an arts center, where Coggs said she took art classes as a child.

“This is truly just a beginning of development we will see in Bronzeville,” she said.

Added Barrett: “Kaylan Haywood shows us what the future of this city looks like.”

Haywood said the 4,000-square-foot renovation project cost about $700,000, aided by $171,000 Vangard and other investors received in tax incremental financing dollars from the city. He said there are eight different companies have already approached him looking to locate offices in the landmark building.

“We have several proposals from local business owners who want to be in the building,” he said.

He said he became interested in the building after learning of its rich history.

“You’d be surprised how many people have been in that building for an art program,” he said.

The history is rich, indeed, said Milwaukee activist Reuben K. Harpole, who wrote the introduction to the book Milwaukee’s Bronzeville: 1900-1950. In its heyday, Harpole said, Bronzeville featured restaurants and nightclubs that would draw world-class jazz artists, including Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and Nat King Cole.

“Herbie Hancock got his start in Milwaukee,” said Harpole.

He recalled clubs such as the Brass Rail and the Celebrity Club, and every street in the commercial corridor was bustling. But that was before the 1970s, when I-43 – the freeway the Inner City Arts Council’s mural faces – was built.  The freeway project wiped out 8,500 homes, Harpole said, and was the death knell for Bronzeville, the social and economic hub for African Americans at that time.

“It wrecked the shopping district,” he said.

But Bronzeville was more than a shopping and entertainment area. Future plans for the district extend beyond that too.

The former Garfield Avenue Elementary School, shuttered in 2005, could become an arts and cultural center, said Deshea Agee, an economic development specialist with the Milwaukee Department of Community Development. The 52,000-square-foot school is at 2215 N. Fourth St.

“The cultural center is part of the plans for Garfield School,” he said.

Also included is a plan to increase homeownership in the district, which has vacant lots the city will sell for $1.

“The homes are still part of the plan,” Agee said.