The southern half of 2220-2244 N. Martin Luther King Dr. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

A fast-expanding real estate firm is the new owner of a prominent property at the intersection of N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and W. North Avenue. in the heart of Bronzeville.

An affiliate of Emem Group purchased the three-building property at 2220-2244 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

The sale price was $1.41 million. That was a result of competitive bidding from multiple buyers said listing broker Blue West Capital in a statement announcing the deal. Shawn Dickman and Carly Gallagher Kelly represented the seller, the Jules family, whose company owns Jewels Caribbean restaurant and event venue. The family, as Urban Milwaukee reported in 2022, had plans to turn much of the complex into a coworking space and event venue for small, low-cost events.

The 12,557-square-foot complex is mostly vacant. Two of the only remaining tenants are the Republican Party of Milwaukee County and the Milwaukee Times weekly newspaper.

The location seems like a natural fit for Emem Group, given the firm’s growing client roster and its own development projects. It now owns the southeast corner of the intersection and serves as the owner’s representative (providing real estate expertise and management) for the $50 million Bronzeville Center for the Arts project at the northeast corner. To the north at W. Locust Street, Emem Group is redeveloping the Martin Luther King Library branch into a mixed-use complex with new library. To the south, Emem serves as the owner’s representative on the EIGHTEEN87 on Water affordable housing development. To the southwest, work will soon begin on the new natural history museum, for which Emem is part of the owner’s representative team. Continue southwest and you’ll end up in the King Park neighborhood, where the firm is working to build duplexes as part of a neighborhood revitalization and affordable housing effort. And if you continue straight west on W. North Avenue, you’ll pass at least three company projects before you cross 27th Street.

The company is led by founder Michael Emem, who Urban Milwaukee profiled in 2020. Company vice president Deshea Agee is the former King Drive business improvement district director. In addition to other educational training, all three are graduates of the Associates in Commercial Real Estate program designed to diversify the commercial real estate industry.

The three-story corner building was constructed in 1885 for Hugo E. Bach. It has housed several restaurants, an early Kohl’s grocery store, Walgreens, Heinemann’s, Stone’s Jewelers, a Subway sandwich shop and most recently the GOP. It made the news in 2018 when a portion of the brick facade collapsed onto the sidewalk below, crushing a Bublr Bikes dock.

The southern building at 2230, known as the Fitz Building, was constructed in 1874 and originally occupied by a grocery store. It ultimately came to be owned by the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee before it was sold as part of a 1990s redevelopment plan. A building south of it, 2220 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., was demolished for a parking lot. The parking lot is part of the 0.69-acre parcel Emem just acquired.

The one-story building between the two buildings was developed in 1999 by Michael Briscoe. Three buildings similar in size to the bookend structures previously filled the space, with two lasting until the 1980s.

Photos

Milwaukee Short-Term Rental Startup Falters

Frontdesk, a startup focused on leasing furnished apartments on platforms like Airbnb, appears to be headed to state receivership.

TechCrunch was the first to report that the company laid off virtually all of its 200-person distributed workforce of employees and contractors following a failed effort to raise additional capital. A subsequent report from Wisconsin Inno said the company laid off “around 60 employees” during a video call with at least 160 people.

The company previously raised more than $22 million, including funding from the former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, Jet Blue Ventures and Bill La Macchia. Its portfolio included more than 1,200 units at its peak.

The company was founded in 2017 by Kyle Weatherly and Jesse DePinto, but Weatherly departed the company in 2022 with DePinto becoming CEO. The company previously acquired Chicago-based Zencity and operated units in more than 30 markets. Several other companies in the short-term rental space have folded since the onset of the pandemic.

Weekly Recap

It’s Construction Season On Marquette’s Campus

For at least a decade, it hasn’t been hard to find a major construction project on the Marquette University campus. And 2024 will be no exception.

The largest and most visible project is the $80 million overhaul of the Helfaer Tennis Stadium and Recreation Center, 525 N. 16th St. At least two other projects are also underway.

Built in 1974, the Rec Center will remain. But it’s receiving a wellness-focused addition and modern, larger athletic facilities.

“This will be a transformational project for our campus, particularly our students. Not only is this facility a key part of our Campus Master Plan, but it is also truly about building a culture of wellness at Marquette,” said Marquette president Mike Lovell in a 2022 statement announcing the project. “When complete, the facility will position recreation, fitness, clinical and mental health services under one roof.”

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Kenosha City Council Approves Hard Rock Casino Deal

The Kenosha City Council on Wednesday approved an agreement with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin that allows a proposed casino project to move forward.

The tribe has partnered with Hard Rock International to develop a casino, hotel and entertainment venue on a 60-acre site west of Interstate 94 in Kenosha. A previous attempt by the Menominee to bring a casino to Kenosha was rejected by former Gov. Scott Walker in 2015.

Kenosha County still has to approve an agreement. The project also needs approval from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and the governor, a process that could take years. The agreement with the city — approved in an 11-6 vote — states the tribe hopes to secure approvals necessary for the project by the end of 2025.

Gary Besaw, vice chairperson of the Menominee Kenosha Gaming Authority, said revenues from the casino project would be used to improve the quality of life for the tribe’s people. Menominee County, home to the tribe’s reservation, had the highest poverty rate in the state as of 2021.

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Condo Project Scrapped, River Site For Sale

A large riverfront property just north of Downtown is on the market.

Real estate developer Wangard Partners is selling the 2.66-acre site at the intersection of E. Brady, N. Water and N. Jackson streets.

And with it, the condominium project proposed for the site is dead.

The asking price, through broker The Barry Company, is $6.5 million.

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Residents Form Development Group to Support Affordable Housing

It all started with a Facebook post.

And now six people from different backgrounds are working together to create affordable housing opportunities in Milwaukee.

Alice Pugh, a career educator, shared on social media her interest in an informational meeting on the Homes MKE initiative, which renovates vacant, foreclosed City of Milwaukee properties and then sells them to residents at affordable prices.

Adrienne Hunter reached out to Pugh about their husbands’ shared interest in the initiative. And then the two decided to work together to send a proposal to the Department of City Development to be one of the developers to participate in this project.

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Construction Starts On 27th Street Garden Apartments

Construction is underway on a new apartment complex in a highly-visible, but, until now, hard-to-access site on Milwaukee’s South Side.

Developer Nabil Salous is constructing a pair of two-story buildings with 12 “upscale” units each. A third, 12-unit building is planned as a second phase.

The 6.4-acre property, formally 4450 S. 27th St., is visible from Interstate 43/894 to the south, but accessing the development will occur via what is currently a dead-end segment of S. 26th Street branched off of W. Whitaker Avenue. A private street extension with a sidewalk will be added.

The buildings are being placed on the southern portion of the lot. A six-foot-tall fence will separate the buildings from the two hotels to the west and the single-family homes to the south.

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UPDATE: An earlier version of the article had a brief reference to an Emem Group manager who is no longer with the company, but still appeared on the company’s website. It has been removed.