City Selling King Drive Development Site, Again

The Department of City Development is soliciting proposals to redevelop a vacant lot on King Drive.

It’s the second time in five years the city listed the 11,250-square-foot site at 1940-1948 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

In 2017,  Que El-Amin and the company he co-owns, Scott Crawford Inc. was the lone respondent to a request for proposals (RFP) and secured approval to build a three-story, mixed-use building. The building would have included a medical office on the first floor and four apartments above. But in 2020 El-Amin and his tenant, podiatrist Dr. Mexton Deacon, ultimately found another home for the Milwaukee Advanced Foot and Ankle Clinic in a one-story building at 1626 W. Fond du Lac Ave.

DCD issued a new RFP for the site this summer, seeking $73,125 from a developer that wants to construct a multi-story building at the site. Suggested uses include office or retail space with housing or a hotel above.

The city will not accept proposals for a parking lot, furniture store, bar, liquor store, medical service facility, pawnshop, convenience store, tobacco store, automobile loan store, gun shop, payday loan office or check-cashing store. The development also must be fully taxable.

The site is located between the Kindred Building, filled by multiple non-profit tenants, and an office building, 1936-1938 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., occupied by the Milwaukee Times.

It’s also across the street from a two-story building, 1937-1939 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., which is in the process of being redeveloped for the Niche Book Bar. A block north, The Dohmen Company Foundation is redeveloping the former Fein Brothers building at 2007 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

The development site is technically four separate parcels, 1940, 1944 and 1948 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and 227 W. Brown St. Each is owned by the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee. The city affiliate has owned the site since 1992.

Proposals are due September 15 at 3 p.m.

A copy of the RFP is available on Urban Milwaukee.

2018 Proposal