Conceptual, non-site-specific rendering of Bronzeville Center for the Arts. Rendering by Wilson & Ford Design Studios.

Republicans on the state Legislature are proposing to drop a $5 million grant to help build the Bronzeville Center for the Arts from the upcoming state budget.

On June 1, the powerful Joint Finance Committee (JFC), which reviews the governor’s biennial budget proposal, stripped Gov. Tony Evers‘ capital budget down from $3.8 billion to $2.4 billion.

The $54.9 million arts center, planned to replace a shuttered Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources site at N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and W. North Ave., didn’t make the cut.

It doesn’t doom the project, which would be a new building designed as a “world-class art and cultural center.” The conceptual plans call for a 50,000-square-foot facility, including an auditorium and exhibition space, that would be a showcase for Black artists.

The nonprofit organization won a competitive state request for proposals to purchase the 3.4-acre property in 2022 for $1.6 million. It closed on the purchase the same year, with the DNR already having relocated to a new facility in the Menomonee Valley.

Since Evers proposed the allocation in February, the center has hired its first executive director. Robert Parker is now the group’s leader. Parker was hired in part for his skill in building organizations. Previously, he served as the inaugural executive director at The Chickasaw Nation-Chickasaw Inkana Foundation in Tupelo, MS, leading the design and development of a $36 million heritage center.

Construction is already underway on the organization’s first project, a gallery space, workshop and office space development at 507 W. North Ave. A one-story addition is being constructed on the west side of a two-story building. Quorum Architects is designing the building. Jordan’s Construction Services is serving as the general contractor.

The signature complex is being designed by Milwaukee-based M&E Architects+Engineers with support from HGA.

Emem Group serves as the owner’s representative on both projects.

The BCA developments build on a number of other efforts underway in the area, including The Griot apartment building (which houses America’s Black Holocaust Museum) and ThriveOn King development by the Medical College of Wisconsin and Greater Milwaukee Foundation. A number of other smaller projects are planned within the King Drive corridor.

Three city of Milwaukee projects made it through the finance committee unscathed. An additional $32.6 million to build what is now a $78.4 million youth prison was recommended for inclusion. The committee also recommended a $10.75 million allocation for a $28 million upgrade to Marquette University‘s School of Dentistry. The state does not have a public dentistry school. UW-Milwaukee is to receive $5 million for planning related to renovations related to health services programs and to building out its Northwest Quadrant, a former hospital.

Republican also struck a $9.3 million allocation for the Iron District soccer stadium proposal.

At least two projects at the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, located in Wauwatosa, were included in the JFC funding proposal. A long-sought replacement for the Cream Puff Pavilion at the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis was also recommended for funding. The $12.5 million renovation of the pavilion is also expected to get some $6 million in private donations.

The full Legislature must still approve the capital plan.

Conceptual Renderings MLK and North Site

507 W. North Ave.

Weekly Recap

Third Ward Tower Making Its Mark

Summer is here, and with it an 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 those 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.

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Are These Houses Historic? Milwaukee Never Got To The Point Of Deciding

Call it the historic preservation debate that wasn’t.

In 2021, historic protection was sought for a row of seven 1860s worker cottages in Bay View affiliated with the industrial rolling mill at the center of the neighborhood’s development in that period. Two years later, the nomination quietly expired without an up-or-down vote.

The properties, located near Lake Michigan on the east side of the 2500 block of S. Superior Street, are regarded as the largest intact cluster of “puddler’s cottages.” The small houses, once approximately 1,000 square feet in size, were built by the Milwaukee Iron Company for its workers as part of a company-town style, rent-to-own agreement. The puddler name is a reference to the job title of the ironworkers. The mill, demolished after its 1929 closure, was once the largest employer in Milwaukee and, most notably, was subject to a deadly 1886 strike over an eight-hour workday.

Joseph Paterick, a nearby resident, nominated the cottages for local historic designation after unsuccessfully seeking to buy one of the houses, 2530 S. Superior St., and learning that the eventual buyers planned to modify the property and possibly build a new house on vacant land created by a 1996 demolition.

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Following Fire, Recycling Center May Move

A significant fire on May 31 could send Milwaukee’s recycling center to the trash heap.

The growing number of fires at the Menomonee Valley facility and the potential of its riverfront location are causing city officials to consider a new site.

“For the past years and months, we have been looking at where we can move it,” said Department of Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke to the Public Works Committee Wednesday. “It’s not cheap.”

The upside could be high. Moving the facility would free up 8.8 acres of waterfront land for development and also improve the value of other neighboring properties, as one developer suggested in a letter to committee chair Alderman Robert Bauman.

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Park East Site To Be Relisted For Sale

Milwaukee County is changing gears on a now long-vacant Park East block in hopes of finding a new buyer to develop the site.

According to a report from interim economic development director Celia Benton, the county is going back to the drawing board on Block 22 and will list it for sale for the fourth time.

The decision comes after developer Cornelius McClendon‘s purchase option was allowed to expire in January. McClendon, who initially secured a purchase option in 2020, had initially proposed a $60 million hotel and apartment complex for the 2.28-acre block bounded by N. Water St., E. Ogden Ave. N. Milwaukee St. and N. Broadway. His firm, McClendon Capital Group, was to pay the county $3.5 million for the property.

“Prior to January 2023, McClendon discussed with the County some concerns and delays they were experiencing related to modifications to their project plans, a request to amend the proposed purchase price, and some project funding delays and issues,” wrote Benton in her report to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. She said negotiations around renewing the lapsed option took place, but discussions about changing the purchase price and the evolving nature of the project triggered the need to issue a new request for proposals (RFP).

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Habitat Breaks Ground on King Park Homes

Habitat for Humanity held a groundbreaking ceremony for its piece of a huge homeownership project in Milwaukee’s King Park neighborhood.

That project involves the building of approximately 120 homes that will eventually be sold to low-income first-time home buyers. Habitat is building single-family 80 homes and developer Emem Group is building another 20 duplexes, which will be rented at below-market rates for 15 years and then sold to homebuyers. The majority of homes built by Milwaukee Habitat are sold to Black and Hispanic families.

The project was drawn in part from a city-wide affordable housing plan created by the Community Development Alliance (CDA) in 2021. The organization worked with the county on the King Park project and has been leading the development of the project. Teig Whaley-Smith, CDA chief executive, said that the community development plans created with the input of neighborhood residents show they are “screaming for homeownership” and “they are asking for help.”

Since taking office County Executive David Crowley has made housing a strategic priority for advancing racial equity in Milwaukee, which is an overarching goal for the county affirmed by county ordinance. The influx of federal funding following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed Crowley’s administration to make historic investments in housing that otherwise would have been difficult for the cash-strapped county.

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Giannis and Brothers Opening Clothing Store

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is opening a retail store in Deer District.

According to a building permit filed with the Department of Neighborhood Services, a $300,000 project is planned to build an “Antetokounbros” store on the first floor of The Trade hotel, 420 W. Juneau Ave.

It would be the second clothing store for the Antetokounmpo brothers, including Giannis, Francis, Thanasis, Kostas and Alex. The brothers opened a store in 2022 in the Athens International Airport in Greece, where four of the brothers grew up.

The brand offers an array of clothes the brothers can often be seen wearing, including Giannis’ oft-donned bucket hat.

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Committee Picks KG Development Partnership To Build New King Drive Apartments

After weighing two competing proposals, the Bronzeville Advisory Committee selected KG Development to develop an $18.3 million mixed-use apartment building at the intersection of N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and W. Burleigh St.

The building would include 67 apartments, the majority set aside at affordable rates, and three commercial stalls with pre-selected tenants, including a small grocery store.

“We look forward to seeing your project advance,” said committee chair LaShawndra Vernon after the committee debated the two proposals in closed session. The Department of City Development, backed by the committee’s input, will advance the proposal to the full Common Council for adoption.

KG and competing bidder Northernstar Companies made public pitches to redevelop a 1.1-acre city-owned property in May, then answered questions before the committee Monday morning.

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