New Riverwalk Plaza Will Be Named For Visionary Developer

Gary Grunau speaks at a 2009 Milwaukee RiverWalk art unveiling. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A new plaza planned as part of the Milwaukee RiverWalk  will be named for Gary Grunau, who championed the system’s creation.

The plaza, planned for the stub-end portion of W. Highland Avenue just east of N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, would include a large “social stair” to facilitate better pedestrian connections between Deer District, the Highland Avenue pedestrian bridge and Water Street, and to encourage more utilization of the space.

It is to be known as the Gary P. Grunau Memorial Plaza.

Grunau, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 80, was a mechanical contractor and businessman who led the redevelopment of Schlitz Park with the Sampson family, the development of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, the creation of the riverwalk system and several other civic projects.

“He was a human dynamo and it was just a joy to be part of his circle,” Grunau’s friend, real estate attorney Bruce Block, to the Public Works Committee on Jan. 8.

“Above all, Gary was an urbanist, and this is a very fitting way to honor someone that contributed so significantly to Milwaukee’s urban fabric,” said Department of City Development riverwalk project manager Alyssa Remington to the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee Tuesday.

A private donation of $950,000, said Remington, would be paired with funding from a tax incremental financing district to fund the space.

The plaza’s creation was identified in the recent downtown plan update. The half-block street currently feeds into the Highland Avenue Pedestrian Bridge, but a notable elevation change redirects pedestrians onto a nearby sidewalk and leaves the street effectively looking like an oversized public loading dock. The new design would leave space for a loading dock for nearby tenants but create an accessible, sloping pedestrian pathway through the block. It would be lit with LED lighting on a trellis-like structure.

The Downtown Riverwalk Business Improvement District hired RINKA to design the proposal.

Blocked credited Grunau and then-Mayor John Norquist for coming up with the cost-sharing agreement that led to the riverwalk system’s creation, drawing billions of dollars of investment and activity to an underutilized waterway. Grunau long served as the chairman of the board of the riverwalk district. Block said Grunau oversaw the creation of River Splash, a now-defunct festival, and the Milwaukee River Challenge.

Grunau’s legacy can be found all over Milwaukee.

A statue of Grunau sits outside the Pier Wisconsin-Discovery World complex, a building he helped develop.

He was also an early partner in Warner Cable Communications (today part of Spectrum), helped bring Manpower’s headquarters Downtown, was a partner in the development of The Edge condominiums and a key player in the Wisconsin Center District‘s creation. He served on several civic boards.

Grunau took over his father’s mechanical contracting business, Grunau Co. in the 1970s. The business was initially launched by his grandfather and was at one point one of the largest mechanical contracting firms in the country.

About The Public Funding

The city’s share of the plaza’s costs are to be funded by an overperforming tax incremental financing district, TID #84, used to support the development of Fiserv Forum.

A total of $7 million would be set aside for repaving W. Vliet Street near the new Milwaukee Public Museum and building the riverwalk plaza.

The district, said Remington, is currently generating $3.5 million in annual increment and already on track to pay off all of its debts and obligations.

As part of the funding amendment, the 5th Street Parking Structure, built as a partnership of the Milwaukee Bucks and the city, would be removed from the district’s boundaries. The change, said Remington, would allow the parking revenue to refill the city’s Transportation Fund, which has struggled since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, while other development in the district would pay down the structure’s construction debt.

“The district is performing quite well and the removal of that structure does not affect our ability to pay down those debts,” said Remington.

Area Alderman Robert Bauman said the district, similar to one in the Historic Third Ward being used to fund $25 million in public infrastructure projects, was likely to be a substantial generator of incremental revenue in future years due to all of the development occurring within its boundaries.

Similar to an arrangement with Cathedral Square Park, the city would allow the Riverwalk District to design and manage construction of the new plaza. The Deer District Business Improvement District would be in charge of select maintenance aspects, including snowplowing and light maintenance.

Approximately six street parking spaces would be removed as part of the plaza’s development. “There wasn’t a huge objection by the tenants to remove those spaces and turn them into what would be more vibrant and safe and utilized,” said Remington.

The full Common Council must still approve the TIF funding plan, creation of the Highland Avenue pedestrian plaza and the formal naming of the plaza for Grunau.

Plans for the plaza and other public infrastructure improvements were first revealed on Dec. 13.

Plaza Renderings

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