Bucks Player to Buy City Lot for $105,000

A new, two-story building for E. Brady St. got its first approval Tuesday morning.

Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton, through his firm Beach House, is proposing to buy a city-owned vacant lot and develop a mixed-use building on the site. It would be his second Milwaukee project, with site preparation work already underway on the first project, a planned three-unit apartment building located downtown

Beach House would pay $105,000 for the Brady St. lot and spend approximately $700,000 developing the building. The second floor would contain a three-bedroom apartment with 2,700 square feet of space and the first floor would have commercial space.

The land sale was unanimously approved by the Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee and will next go to the Common Council. The building’s design will be vetted by the Historic Preservation Commission next week as the site is within the Brady Street Historic District.

“We hope to close soon and have shovels in the ground this spring,” said Department of City Development (DCD) real estate analyst Yves LaPierre.

Area Alderman Nik Kovac held a community meeting for the proposal last week and said he received near-unanimous support from the small group in attendance.

That strong support could be because the site was approved for a different development three years ago. Scott Genke proposed to develop a $1 million, three-story building with first-floor commercial space and three apartments. Those plans were dropped in 2018.

Kovac said Beach House’s design also reflects feedback from preservation commission staff. Patera is serving as the project architect.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Connaughton’s business partner Joseph Stanton was the lone representative present from Beach House. Connaughton is in New Orleans for a Bucks game and the developer’s father is in South Bend, Indiana working on approvals for another project. “We have a couple more projects down there we are doing just off the campus of Notre Dame,” said Stanton. Connaughton is a graduate of Notre Dame and has also developed properties in Portland, Oregon where he previously played.

The L-shaped commercial space includes two sets of doors that would allow it to be subdivided. An indoor parking space would be included in a notch in the building behind the commercial space, as well a covered outdoor space.

The city listed the site, addressed as 1697-1699 N. Marshall St., for sale for $105,000 in 2018. A duplex was formerly on the site, but burned down some two decades ago.

Kovac said developing the site, instead of maintaining it as green space, is consistent with the city’s plans for Brady Street.

LaPierre said the city has received other offers since Genke’s proposal fell through, but none complied with the terms of the request for proposals originally issued for the site. Available city-owned sites and buildings are listed on the DCD website.

Beach House approached the site about the property in late 2019.

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Related Legislation: File 191562