The Couture Gets Financing Extension

Construction starts on Adams Garden Park, wellness center for King Drive.

By Graham Kilmer - May 27th, 2019 05:59 pm

Rendering of The Couture

The developers of The Couture apartment tower recently received a second deadline extension from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to submit a final application for a loan guarantee. Barrett Lo Visionary Development is reportedly working to raise a final $15 million in equity to complete the 44-story apartment tower.

The extension moves the firm’s deadline from May 26th to July 26th. In an appearance on the recently launched MKE Forward podcast, firm president Rick Barrett said: “We are down to our last slug of money (to finance The Couture). It’s $15 million. That’s where we’re at. We’re trying to raise that last piece.” Sources have told Urban Milwaukee that Barrett Lo was required to raise additional equity on the project as part of the final loan application.

The tower, planned for a site at 909 E. Michigan St., was first proposed in 2012 and the most recent public estimate pegged the project’s development costs at $122 million. Barrett Lo received a request for a firm commitment to secure a loan guarantee on November 2nd.

The city has already agreed to contribute $17.5 million to the project through a tax-incremental financing district to support the construction of a streetcar and bus terminal in the building’s base as well as a three-story public atrium. An additional $2 million was added to the public financing package to pay for relocation of a previously undocumented 48-inch-wide sewer that runs through the site.

Construction Starts Soon on Adams Garden Park

Walnut Way co-founders Sharon and Larry Adams, with development partner Juli Kaufmann, are starting construction on Adams Garden Park. The full block development is intended to create a new home for environmentally-friendly organizations in the city’s Lindsay Heights neighborhood.

The Adams’ project, located just east of Kaufmann’s Wally Schmidt Tavern redevelopment project, calls for a $1 million redevelopment of a vacant building at 1836 W. Fond du Lac Ave.

Tenant partners will include the Milwaukee Environmental Consortium, Milwaukee Water Commons, Wisconsin Conservation Voters, and Walnut Way’s Blue Skies Landscaping Program.

For renderings and more project information, see a press release issued May 21st.

The project was first unveiled in 2017 and substantially modified in 2018.

Wellness Center for King Drive

Bader Philanthropies is expanding its footprint on N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

The foundation, which relocated to a redeveloped building at 3300 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., is working with undisclosed partners on a cafe and wellness center at 3338-3346 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

The new project will have 10,000 square feet of space after a small addition is constructed according to a report by Tom Daykin.

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