County Officials Suggest Taking Back Couture Site

Supervisors cite lack of progress on county-owned lakefront land.

By Graham Kilmer - Sep 16th, 2018 03:22 pm

Rendering of The Couture

A handful of members of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors suggested this week that the county explore new development partners for The Couture site while the project is stalled waiting for financing to come through.

The site, at 909 E. Michigan St., is intended to be transformed into a 44-story apartment tower containing approximately 300 units.

While Barrett Lo Visionary Development waits on its application for a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Supervisors John Weishan, Jr. and Marcelia Nicholson commented this week on a closing window for development and the county potentially “doing something” if the project doesn’t get underway. The sale agreement allows the county to take the site back if construction didn’t start by February 2018, Tom Daykin reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“We’ve been very patient for a very long time,” said Weishan. Barrett Lo paid $500,000 to acquire the approximately two-acre parcel.

Barrett Lo did demolish the former Downtown Transit Center, clearing the site for the tower, but has yet to start construction on the project because of financing issues.

$1.3 million grant going into Near West Side Public Housing

A $1.3 million federal grant was awarded to Marquette University and Northwest Side Partners in partnership with the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM) to study and plan for rehabilitation and redevelopment of the College Court public housing complex at 3334 W. Highland Blvd.

HACM executive director Tony Perez said the grant will leave the authority better positioned to apply for a larger $30 million federal grant to redevelop College Court. HACM is looking at the project to be similar to Westlawn’s redevelopment, which was funded in part with a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods grant, Sean Ryan reported in the Milwaukee Business Journal.

In Other News:

Correction: The story originally incorrectly reported HACM as the grant awardee. The story has been updated to reflect that Marquette University and Northwest Side Partners are the grant awardees.

If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits, all detailed here.