Mandel Plans Lakefront High-Rise
Last empty site in old Park East area would be location for Prospect Ave tower.
A long-empty lot at the northeast corner of N. Prospect Ave. and E. Ogden Ave. is poised to be the site of a residential high-rise building if all goes well. The site at 1350 N. Prospect Ave. is currently undergoing soil testing. A construction worker at the site indicated the 100-foot depth they’re drilling would be required for a high rise comparable to others in the area. Robert Monnat, Mandel Group Chief Operating Officer, said that the firm is gathering their background information for a project at the site, but declined to provide project specifics at this point beyond noting the project is in its very early stages.
The site itself is the last-remaining undeveloped site the Mandel Group owns in the old Park East Corridor. Long-time Milwaukeeans will remember the stretch of vacant land from N. Jefferson Ave. to the lakefront along E. Ogden Ave. as the original Park East. That land was cleared in the 1960’s and early 1970’s with the intention of ringing downtown with an expressway loop. Thankfully, all that was built on the northern end was the stub from Interstate 43 to E. Jefferson Ave., which was replaced with an at-grade boulevard in 2003.
Mandel Group acquired the stretch of land in the late 1980’s and was an urban development pioneer when they filled most of the stretch with the East Pointe apartments and retail, as well as other low-rise or town home apartment and condominium projects. The company also made a significant contribution towards expanding Burns Commons.
The site, for a short time, was planned to be a complex that was to include two 27 story towers financed in part by the Bradley family. The complex would have stretched from N. Prospect Ave. to N. Farwell Ave. between E. Ogden Ave. and E. Lyon St. and literally would have been built above the freeway. That plan died with the proposed freeway, and today most of that proposed development is occupied by the Mandel-developed The Franklin apartments.
The site is 74,816 square-feet (a portion of which is used for the pedestrian access trail that wraps behind Mandel’s Lake Bluff Condominiums), which might sound small, but the Mandel Group’s University Club Tower was built on approximately 41,382 square-feet. And The Moderne was built on all of 14,159 square-feet. So this site should be roomy enough for a high-rise tower.
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Mandel building another property? This is beginning to become somewhat concerning of the growing number of establishments that they have under management. Controling numerous buildings downtown allows for increased flexibility in monopolizing rent prices. Mandel has built some great places, but in my opinion, they have not been pricing their residences at a competitive rate.
Bring it on! Though I do echo the previous commenter’s conern about a semi-monopoly, I don’t think we have to worry about that just yet.
Great news.
For those curious about what the Layton School of Art building looked like, here’s a picture:
http://content.mpl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/HstoricPho/id/4930/rec/34
Within regards only to the building itself, I don’t lament its loss. Downtown’s Layton Art Gallery, however, is one of the city’s most unfortunate losses. I like that whatever gets built on on the Prospect site will take away some attention from the blandly-designed Breakwater.
Becoming a monopoly can be a problem, but that is something that will need to be addressed down the line. Mandel develops superior properties, and is also a superior management team. If I had a choice between a Mandel or Katz property, I would choose a Mandel property hands down with out question. It is unfortunate that Katz Properties has acquired a number of premium properties and run them into the ground yet, rents are high and services are pathetic. And this is nothing new, it is a Katz hallmark. So I would think we should welcome a proven track record that Mandel has and hopefully it will spur other developers to meet that high level of quality. Milwaukee will be better for it.