Another New Historic District Proposed For Wisconsin Avenue
And another with possibly thorny issues with property owners.
3200 W. Wisconsin Ave. (left) and Franklin Arms (right). Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
A cluster of four apartment buildings, two of which are believed to have been vacant for two decades, would be granted local historic protection under a proposal now pending before the Milwaukee Common Council.
Located at N. 32nd Street and W. Wisconsin Avenue, the four buildings were constructed between 1903 and 1923.
“These four buildings standalone as being a cluster of Period Revival apartment buildings from the first decades of the 20th Century,” said Historic Preservation Commission planner Andrew Stern in presenting the proposed district on Monday.
The buildings represent the second phase of development for the former “Grand Avenue,” which saw country estate mansions be replaced by high-end apartment buildings.
They also represent the second wave of recent historic designations for the street, and appear to have the same underlying reason for nomination: Youssef Berrada.
“Mr. Berrada has this way of putting up all these pergolas and all these rocks and all these things, and all the sudden these very beautiful old homes change totally different as far as appearances like he has done, for whatever reason on Wells Street and Wells Street doesn’t look historical because of all of these pergolas,” said Laura Sue Mosier, the nominator and owner and resident of the neighboring Schuster Mansion.
Berrada is the city’s largest private landlord and operates with dramatic scale and efficiency in renovating properties. His firm, Berrada Properties, has acquired several buildings on the Near West Side in recent years.
Mosier fears Berrada may acquire the fire-damaged Franklin Arms building, 3120-3128 W. Wisconsin Ave. The first floor is currently boarded up.
She said the building, before the fire, was a “den of drugs, drug dealing and prostitution” but that it was quiet. “As long as they weren’t causing problems, I had no problem with that,” said Mosier.
The potential that Berrada Properties would modify the nearby Millerand Properties, 3035 W. Wisconsin Ave., triggered an earlier nomination to protect that building and neighboring properties. The Millerand was individually designated in April after several contested hearings. The proposed neighboring historic district was approved in July after all of the properties on the south side of the street were removed.
The new district could encounter the similar bureaucratic controversy that engulfed the prior district: do the owners know their properties are potentially being designated and what that entails?
Local historic protection requires property owners to receive a certificate of appropriateness for any exterior modifications to a property.
The commission’s staff is trying to fight off the issue, with limited success.
The owner of Franklin Arms, listed in state records as Adam McCarthy of AJ Franklin, LLC, did respond to an offer of a private meeting with HPC staff in advance of the formal hearing Monday, but was unable to attend. Stern said the owner has a $4 million renovation planned and is opposing the designation for fearing of increasing the cost, but didn’t appear at Monday’s hearing.
Two other buildings, said Mosier, are vacant, at least until someone breaks down the plywood and starts squatting. City records list the owner as a Dayton, Ohio-based firm, BWB Amherst Properties, LLC. The firm acquired the properties for $1.19 million in 2022.
The final building, 3200 W. Wisconsin Ave., is occupied. But a certified letter to the owner’s PO Box, registered in city property records, was returned as undeliverable said Stern. State corporate records list Modern City Development LLC’s registered agent as Cedar Grove resident Saul Ruiz.
“I have a funny feeling we’re going to hear more about this,” said commissioner and area Alderman Robert Bauman.
“What do you think is going on?” asked Commissioner Sally Peltz.
“I honestly don’t know. That’s why we have to just follow our process,” said Bauman.
Stern said the HPC staff is recommending the district, to be known as the “Grand Avenue Apartments Historic District,” be created for its high-integrity examples of Neo-Classical Revival, Arts & Crafts and Tudor Revival architecture as well as involving prominent architecture firms of the era.
The district includes the 58-unit Franklin Arms, designed in 1923 by Rosman & Wierdsma, the Modern City-owned, 12-unit Hudson Flats at 3200 W. Wisconsin Ave. (1907, Leiser & Holst) and BWB’s two buildings, the 12-unit structure at 3212 W. Wisconsin Ave. (1903, Ferry & Clas) and the three-story, 12-unit structure at 3226 W. Wisconsin Ave. (1923, architect unknown, developed by Simon Loftus).
The commission unanimously endorsed the designation. The full Common Council must also approve the designation.
Immediately north of the proposed historic district, Mosier is pursuing historic protection of a three-unit apartment building built by the original owner of her home. The commission endorsed temporary designation of that property, with a hearing on permanent designation to come later this month.
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Related Legislation: File 240423
Does the Historic Preservation Commission have a mission statement? What is its purpose?
On the city website directions exist for residents to apply to have their properties go through the process to receive a designation.
I have not found(could be me), that the commission is tasked with actively procuring more designations, yet that is what is reported, most of the time.
The commission reviews applications. The staff cannot submit applications.
Thanks Jeramey.
I am still confused as to how the HPC seems to be used to address certain, problem city properties. Is there no other mechanism available to residents?
Hope someone can shed some light on this for me.
Instead of these phony “historic preservation” designations, maybe the city needs to do something about parasites who have made affordable housing in MKE impossible for many. Cheap pergolas, signature boulders, and crappy paint jobs have become the signature of a vulture who, in times past, would have won the “Golden Rat” award for worst landlord.