‘Signature’ Condo Tower Planned for Downtown Milwaukee
25-story Zenith would be a bookend to Ascent apartment tower.
Zenith. Rendering by KORB.
Milwaukee could be on the verge of seeing something it hasn’t seen in two decades: a new condominium high-rise.
While the city has seen a wave of apartment towers constructed, culminating in two more than 30-story buildings completed in 2024, the city’s supply of new housing for sale in Downtown has been effectively zero since the Great Recession.
One development firm, New Land Enterprises, is now making a big bet that the market is ready for change.
On Monday, New Land unveiled plans for Zenith, a 25-story, 226-unit tower. The building would be constructed at 711 E. Kilbourn Ave., a vacant lot across from New Land’s record-setting Ascent mass timber apartment tower.
The company, one of the leaders in Milwaukee’s prior urban condo boom that began in the 1990s, believes the market has matured, creating demand for new owner-occupied downtown housing units.
A growing demand for new condos and rising prices for existing housing have made the development financially feasible, said Tim Gokhman, New Land’s managing director, in an interview. The shift, he said, has happened dramatically over the past three years as housing prices have matched construction prices and demand for new owner-occupied housing has grown.
The building would be a “signature condo tower,” said Gokhman. It would offer amenities and building systems not found in other buildings, and at a price point New Land believes other buildings can’t match.
“It’s a luxury building, no question about it, but it is really optimized for efficiency,” said Gokhman. “With a luxury building, with this location, with these amenities, we get a pretty attainable price point.”
One-bedroom units would range from $458,000 to $655,000; two-bedroom units would range from $772,000 to $1.2 million; and penthouse units, with 1,997 to 3,670 square feet, would range from $1.8 million to $3 million.
Zenith would include an indoor/outdoor pool atop the parking podium, a sauna, an outdoor terrace with fire pits, a rooftop deck, a pet spa, a golf simulator and a two-story fitness center. Building staff would always be on site.
Some combination of the amenities can be found in many other new buildings, including Ascent, but Gokhman believes the total offering and ownership option will differentiate the building from both existing apartments and condos.
“There’s a segment of the population that has a strong preference for ownership, and right now they don’t have an option at all,” said Gokhman.
Compared to Kilbourn Tower and University Club Tower, two existing condo towers with a few dozen units each, the Zenith units would be smaller, said Gokhman, but the amenities and building systems would be better because of the number of units and the availability of modern technology. The indoor/outdoor pool with skyline and lake views, he said, would also be unmatched.
“In many respects, you’re chasing a different market,” he said of the two lakefront towers chasing only the very top of the market.
New Land hopes to presell 50% of the units before breaking ground in 2027.
Korb Architecture is leading the building’s design. A general contractor has not been named.
The tower would use a concrete design with no beams, a feature intended to make the units’ interiors more attractive to residents. “You have to be very intentional with your floor plan design,” said Gokhman of achieving the design. He said the beamless design is something prospective luxury buyers are looking for.
The choice to use concrete over mass timber, an engineered wood product that New Land believes gives Ascent an aesthetic advantage versus other apartment buildings, was deliberate to achieve the beamless design.
“Ascent is one of a kind, and it is going to be very difficult to repeat,” said Gokhman. He said the gap between mass timber construction costs and concrete construction costs are dramatic. New Land, he said, continues to look to develop mass timber buildings in other markets.
Gokhman is confident his company has the experience to handle the transition back to for-sale housing from rental housing. “You’re selling a unit to someone. That’s a very different process than renting a unit,” he said.
Falk Ruvin Gallagher is leading sales for the tower. A presale website was scheduled to launch Monday evening.
New Land has long eyed housing for the site. The site was initially rezoned in 2008 for The Bookends development, which envisioned a 19-story apartment tower on the site and a neighboring lot. That proposal did not move forward, but the special zoning designation remains.
New Land, in 2022, sought to develop a small food truck park on the site, but those plans never progressed after a license was initially requested. A zoning modification was made in 2025 to allow Ascent residents to have gardens at the site.
The last condo plan to receive zoning approval, The Fifteens at Park East, called for 15 large townhomes just north of Downtown. It was approved in 2024 and canceled in 2025. A proposal for the Haymarket area near Deer District could include condos, but plans have yet to be publicly introduced.
Renderings
2022 Site Photos
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This is exciting!