Century City Will Be Used For Concrete Crushing

A Riverwest street could end up building the foundation for the growth of Century City, literally.

The city will lease an empty lot at the corner of N. 35th St. and W. Capitol Dr. to Zignego Company for a concrete crushing operation. The crushed material will be used to construct a pad for a new building.

The concrete will come from N. Humboldt Blvd., where the city is partnering with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to completely rebuild a 1.5-mile stretch from E. North Ave. to E. Keefe Ave. That work is already underway, with piles of material awaiting shipment offsite.

It will be trucked west down Capitol Drive where Zignego crushing equipment will be used to break it down. It will be soaked in water along the way to avoid dust spreading.

“All concrete that is crushed on-site will be reused and recycled,” said Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee (RACM) project manager Benjamin Timm at the RACM board’s Thursday meeting.

It’s the third time Century City has played host to such an operation, Timm said. City development officials said it also saves money.

The city’s site preparation work for the former Tower Automotive factory campus involved removing contaminated materials. The crushed concrete can be used as fill.

Timm said the latest round of concrete would be used in part to build a pad for a potential second new industrial building. An affiliate of Good City Brewing secured a purchase option in October to allow the development of a new 54,000-square-foot building at 3055 W. Hopkins St. Earlier in 2021 it announced that it had fully leased the Century City I building after purchasing it in 2018.

The concrete could be used at other projects in the area, including Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District‘s 31-million-gallon West Basin stormwater retention proposal.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will monitor the equipment so that dust doesn’t spread.

“We’re used to doing this in front of residential homes,” said firm president Dan Zignego.

Timm said those living along N. 35th St. wouldn’t be negatively impacted because the wind often blows east, away from their properties. He said prior area crushing operations have actually been setup closer to homes and not generated complaints. “This is a more ideal site than the previous ones,” said Timm.

But just in case, Timm said RACM has communicated about the project with area neighborhood associations and Alderman Khalif Rainey. He said he also gives out his personal cell phone number in the event there is an issue.

Zignego said the equipment would operate from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. “It sounds just like any construction site,” he said.

All equipment will enter and exit the site from Capitol Drive.

The project is scheduled to run from June through December. The company will pay $1 for the lease.

Timm said Zignego will be required to make some improvements to Capitol Drive after the project is complete.

The specific site being used is a 13.71-acre parcel at 3940 N. 35th St. The city purchased it in 2019 from a Tower affiliate. The company had held onto the property, long used to store autobody frames, in hopes of selling it for $1.6 million. The city ultimately paid $250,000.

Last year, the Department of Public Works used the site for a conceptual study of a third drop-off center. RACM and the Department of City Development would like to eventually develop the site.

Photos and Site Plan