County Threatened With Lakefront Lawsuit
County committee okays negotiations with The Couture developer, despite a casual threat of lawsuit.
The Couture Rendering
At the Monday special meeting of the Milwaukee County Economic and Community Development Committee, the plan to start negotiations between Milwaukee County and developer Rick Barrett to purchase the Downtown Transit Center received approval. Barrett plans to develop a 44-story, $125 million high-rise known as The Couture. The building would include a hotel with 80 rooms and 179 apartments if built.
Despite supporting Sup. Patricia Jursik‘s efforts to block this measure from being heard in July, County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic actually brought the resolution to open the negotiations forward. The resolution includes various conditions that must be met before the county board would approval a land sale. These included: getting a fair market value price for the land, signing a development agreement that includes parts of the Park East Redevelopment Contract, which includes minority and resident participation requirements, and gaining assurances that the site isn’t in violation of the Public Trust Doctrine.
Despite the information provided by the DNR, John Lunz, President of Preserve our Parks, spoke in opposition to the project, insisting that this is a protected site. Lunz warned the committee members that “there’s always the possibility that someone is going to take them to court.”
The resolution was unanimously approved and will go before the full County Board of Supervisors on Thursday, July 26th.
More about the Couture
- The Couture Names First Retail Tenant - Sophie Bolich - Jun 6th, 2025
- Streetcar Begins Daily Service To The Couture, BRT Will Soon Follow - Jeramey Jannene - Apr 11th, 2024
- Friday Photos: See The View From The Couture’s Upper Levels - Jeramey Jannene - Mar 8th, 2024
- The Couture Shows Off First Apartments - Jeramey Jannene - Jan 24th, 2024
- Transportation: Streetcar Extension Opens Sunday - Jeramey Jannene - Oct 28th, 2023
- Lakefront Streetcar Extension Opens October 29 - Jeramey Jannene - Aug 22nd, 2023
- Eyes on Milwaukee: See Inside The Couture’s Rise - Jeramey Jannene - Mar 9th, 2023
- Transportation: Congress Extends Streetcar Grant - Jeramey Jannene - Mar 16th, 2022
- Eyes on Milwaukee: The Couture Starts Massive Concrete Pour - Jeramey Jannene - Mar 16th, 2022
- City Hall: Council Could End Fight Over Couture Provision - Jeramey Jannene - Feb 22nd, 2022
Read more about Couture here
Political Contributions Tracker
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- May 3, 2019 - Marina Dimitrijevic received $500 from Rick Barrett
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What an unbelievably stupid waste of time. Shame, shame, shame on these people who cannot see the forest for the trees. They humiliate themselves and everyone else in Milwaukee by totally misunderstanding what is quality development and what is not. No one is taking away parkland here. This is an enhancement to the lakefront, not a hindrance.
Everything planned for our lakefront is an “enhancement of the lakefront” – everything – in the eyes of its planner. There is a map of many dots, of all the things – even a “Clown Museum” – that could have been located on the lake front had there been no rules about usage.
@Bill Right we do have rules about usage. And from what I can tell (this is my understanding) it is about lakebed grants, not simply lakebed or filled land as otherwise that could apply to the Menomonee Valley, much of downtown Milwaukee, and all sorts of sites in Wisconsin. And the line for the protected lakebed grants is in the middle of Lincoln Memorial, which is what the DNR informed the County in 2011.