Third Ward Tower Making Its Mark

333 N. Water St. rises along the Milwaukee River. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Summer is here, and with it and endless stream of tourists along E. St. Paul Avenue near the Milwaukee Public Market. But things look a little different this year.

Kittycorner from the market, a new high-rise apartment tower is rising. Part of a luxury apartment tower building boom in Milwaukee, 333 N. Water St. will be the only one in the Historic Third Ward. And it’s the neighborhood’s amenities as much as the amenities within the building itself that the development team will be selling to future residents.

The 31-story, $165-million building is being constructed atop a long-time Historic Third Ward parking lot. When complete, it will contain 333 high-end apartments. It will also include a riverfront restaurant space, a new access point to the riverwalk, an eighth-floor pool atop a seven-story parking structure and commercial space facing N. Water St. A common area for residents is planned for the space within the tower that is adjacent to the pool.

The building is being developed by the Chicago office of international real estate developer Hines, which served as the developer for Northwestern Mutual on its 7Seventy7 luxury apartment tower. Completed in 2018, it was that project that gave Hines, and several other developers and investors, the confidence to proceed with more projects.

“Projects like this are great, but they take a lot of work to put together,” said Hines’ senior managing director Tom D’Arcy at a December 2022 groundbreaking.

The tower is being designed by Devon Patterson of Solomon Cordwell Buenz and constructed by W.E. O’Neil Construction. VJS Construction Services is serving as the concrete subcontractor, with its equipment clearly visible as the tower climbs.

City officials have been happy to see the company’s investment. Mayor Cavalier Johnson called it a “skyline-defining project” that will produce family-supporting jobs for people across the city. Area Alderman Robert Bauman said Hines’ entrance to Milwaukee is a signal to other developers that Milwaukee is a good place to invest. The alderman praised the building’s design and that it was being developed without a subsidy.

It required a combination of design and zoning approvals from the Historic Third Ward Architectural Review Board, City Plan Commission and Common Council.

“Milwaukee has been the best city from planning, to development to zoning that I have ever worked in,” said D’Arcy.

First proposed in 2021, it was originally to be slimmer and a floor taller, but rising construction costs forced a redesign to a more stout structure that maximized leasable space.

A foundation formed by 338 piles pounded to a depth of 185 feet gets past several dozen feet of brick-laden fill from previously demolished buildings and the 1892 Third Ward fire. The pounding is now done, only to be replaced by a steady stream of concrete mixer trucks from Riv/Crete.

Hines paid $6 million for the 0.79-acre site. A 2005 Third Ward land use plan calls for a “landmark” on the property and includes images of a tower. The plan was used as the basis for the architectural review board allowing a building far taller than those nearby.

Hines’ building, according to a June 2022 commercial construction permit request, would stand 342 feet tall. Including the parking structure, planned at approximately 400 spaces, it will be a 542,285-square-foot building.

A new connection to the Milwaukee RiverWalk will stretch west from the corner of N. Water St. and E. St. Paul Ave., under the edge of the tower, to the Milwaukee River. The existing riverwalk, currently disconnected from the property, would remain in its current alignment. The city, through its formula-based program, will pay for the public riverwalk connections as part of securing a permanent easement.

Rents for 333 N. Water St. are expected to be approximately $3 per square foot per month (a 1,000-square-foot apartment would be $3,000 per month).

The Hop rolls past the north side of the property. “To those who say the streetcar doesn’t pay for itself, this is a $140 million investment that is a result of our investment in the streetcar itself,” said Bauman in September 2021 after the development team said it was a factor in selecting the site. If the project were ultimately assessed at $100 million, it would net local governments more than $3 million in new property tax revenue annually. That includes more than $1 million to the City of Milwaukee or almost 25% of The Hop’s annual budget.

Across the river, a new dog park and Foxtown Brewing complex are scheduled to soon be constructed.

Photos

February 2022 Renderings

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March 2022 Design Adjustments

Pre-Construction Site Photos