High-end apartments planned at Goll mansion site near Milwaukee lakefront

Madison developer Palisade Property has the historic Goll House near Milwaukee’s lakefront under contract for purchase and is working on plans for a high-end apartment tower there. The property at 1550 N. Prospect Ave. has been listed for sale since June, Palisade Property and principal Chris Houden emerged from a group of interested buyers to put the land under contract, said Patrick Gallagher, president and CEO of Milwaukee brokerage Siegel-Gallagher. “He is going to roll up his sleeves for preserving the Goll mansion under the city’s wishes,” Gallagher said. “We think it’ll be a good addition to the neighborhood, and obviously some neighbors will have some concerns.” Palisade Property is working with Milwaukee architect Kahler Slater Inc. on the project. Milwaukee Ald. Robert Bauman said he has had informal discussions with the development group but has received no formal plans. They have discussed a 17- or 18-story building. The developers may move the Goll House toward Prospect Avenue to create a bigger footprint for a new building near the Lake Michigan bluff. Bauman said he has no stance on the project, but warned the developers they likely will run into a “buzzsaw” of opposition from condo owners in the 1522 On The Lake building to the south. Residents of that building opposed a proposal more than six years ago by New Land Enterprises LLP to build a condo tower on the property. “I’ve just explained what the challenges will be,” Bauman said. The Goll House belongs to Milwaukee residential developer Dominion Properties and Milwaukee-based Heartland Funds chairman William Nasgovitz. Dominion Properties bought a stake in the land last year and was considering an apartment development there. It opted instead to sell it, said Mike O’Connor, Dominion principal. “We are very excited about the development of the property but going forward we would not have an ownership position,” O’Connor said. The land has an asking price of $1.69 million, Gallagher said. “We had several Chicago buyers who expressed initial interest,” he said. “We had several local buyers who looked at it.”

Downtown Milwaukee SpringHill Suites set for spring 2016 opening

Indiana’s White Lodging Services Corp. will manage the SpringHill Suites Milwaukee Downtown hotel that is under construction next to the city’s convention center. Local developer Jackson Street Management LLC is restoring a former office building at 744 N. Fourth St. for the 155-room hotel. The hotel is scheduled to open in spring 2016. The project marks the second collaboration between White Lodging and Jackson Street Management. White Lodging of Merrillville, Ind., also manages the Milwaukee Marriott Downtown that Jackson Street developed downtown. In a Thursday announcement, White Lodging called it the first hotel to be built in 15 years that is connected with the Wisconsin Center. The building is linked with the city’s skywalk system. “We are excited to once again partner with Jackson Street Holdings on this new hotel that will be a key addition for convention attendees and business travelers with its indoor connection to the center,” said Chris Anderson, White Lodging senior vice president and chief revenue officer.

Reed Street Yards development site sold to construction firm

A development site in a Milwaukee business park which targets water technology firms has been sold to a commercial construction firm that will build offices there for Zurn Industries LLC. Fond du Lac-based C.D. Smith Construction Inc. bought the 1.6-acre lot in Reed Street Yards business park from Building 41 LLC, an affiliate of General Capital Group LLP, for $1.4 million, according to state real estate records posted Thursday. The parcel’s address is 425 W. Freshwater Way, according to city assessment records. That’s the address of the future three-story, 52,000-square-foot headquarters of Zurn Industries, a plumbing products maker which in June disclosed plans to move to Reed Street Yards from Erie, Pa. C.D. Smith and Klein Development Inc. will develop the building, which will then be sold to Zurn, a division of Milwaukee-based Rexnord Corp.

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City comptroller recommends approval of Milwaukee Bucks arena plan

While saying sports team owners have played cities against one another to obtain public financing for arenas and stadiums, city Comptroller Martin Matson concludes the proposed city financing plan for the Milwaukee Bucks arena is “achievable.” “At this point in time, I recommend approval of the proposed financing, which may reflect the beginning of an even larger economic development opportunity,” Matson says in his Tuesday report to the Common Council. The $500 million basketball arena would use $250 million in financing from city, state and county taxpayers, with the county and state funding plans already approved by the Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker. The arena would be built north of the BMO Harris Bradley Center, between N. 4th and N. 6th streets, with a neighboring entertainment center, featuring restaurants and public space, developed east of N. 4th St. and north of W. Highland Ave. The city would provide $47 million if approved by the Common Council. The council’s Steering and Rules Committee is to discuss the proposal at a Monday meeting, with review by the Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee to occur on Sept. 15 and the Finance and Personnel Committee on Sept. 16. The full council meets on Sept. 22. Under the plan, the city would spend $35 million to develop a 1,243-space parking structure north of W. Juneau Ave. and east of N. 6th St., in the Park East strip. That structure also would serve future adjacent offices, apartments and other commercial space envisioned by a Bucks-affiliated development group, Head of the Herd LLC. The city and the Bucks would share a 50-50 split of the parking structure’s revenue. It would replace a 1,000-space city-owned parking structure, valued at $7.4 million, to be given to the Bucks, and demolished to make way for the entertainment center. That city-owned structure includes vacant space that has housed GameTime and other taverns. Also, the city would spend $12 million to convert N. 4th St., between W. Highland and W. Juneau avenues, into a 130,000-square-foot outdoor public plaza between the arena and the entertainment center. Some of the city’s funds, plus interest, would be repaid through property taxes from new commercial development near the arena. That would occur within a new 45-acre tax incremental financing district bordered roughly by W. Vliet St., W. Kilbourn Ave., the Milwaukee River and N. 6th St. Those funds would be repaid within 17 years. Once that city debt is paid off, the new property taxes would flow to the city’s general fund, Milwaukee Public Schools and other local governments. Additional funds would be repaid over five years through property taxes on developments within a current tax incremental financing district along N. Commerce St., north of downtown. The Bucks would provide $8 million to help pay for the parking structure. That money, plus interest, would eventually be repaid to the Bucks through property taxes from new development within the arena tax financing district. But the Bucks wouldn’t receive those funds until after the city’s $12 million debt, […]

Appeals court in Milwaukee begins an all-female era

New Milwaukee Public Museum VP aims to shake up audience engagement

It might seem obvious, but focusing on the visitor experience from start to finish represents a new strategy for most museums, and the Milwaukee Public Museum plans to be an early adapter of that new mindset. Milwaukee’s natural history and science museum just hired a new vice president of audience and community engagement to redefine how the nonprofit runs its marketing, retail, education and guest relations divisions. The new position coincides with the museum creating a new strategic plan for the visitor experience, which will be complete in summer 2016. The museum, like most museums around the country, has been seeing attendance for its special exhibits decline for the last few years, but core museum and dome theater attendance has held steady and increased slightly in 2015. Hillary Olson will begin in the new position next month, coming to Milwaukee from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. I talked with Olson about how focusing on the visitor is a new approach for most museums, and why it’s important. Q: What does it mean to focus on the visitor experience? “You think about what the visitor is experiencing, from seeing an ad, to the website, to buying tickets. It’s usually been a different person organizing those things, along with inside the museum itself with food, exhibits, and then what happens when you leave the museum and hopefully post on social media or maybe become a member. But now it’s a small but growing trend in museums to have a person at the highest level focusing on the audience itself.” Q: So this trend is just beginning? “I think the public museum is really on the cutting edge with this. I’ve seen only a couple other places do it, but as we do it and share with other museums how it works, I think you’ll see more.” Q: Do you think the public museum is primed to accept major organization changes? “I see the museum itself as standing on the cusp of large-scale change. This is a tipping point, and hopefully the creation of my position brings us to a singular goal of really meeting the needs of Milwaukee.” Q: So what experience do you have with this? “One of the things I did in Philadelphia was bringing together the vice presidents and developers at the Franklin Institute, and got them to talk about what it all means. When you walk in the door, are you seeing what you expect from the website and all the signs you’ve seen? Museums often run like a business sometimes and forget about the nonprofit aspect. But you need to exist for the people. The goal is to get more people coming and enjoying it and seeing it.”

Lubar Center for Entrepreneurship aims to complement Milwaukee startup community

The Lubar Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, made possible by a recent $10 million gift from Sheldon and Marianne Lubar, aims to provide entrepreneurship education for both students and the wider community.Among the goals of the center, which will be housed in a new 28,000-square-foot building to be constructed at the corner of Kenwood Boulevard and Maryland Avenue on the UWM campus, is to improve the success rate of small businesses in Milwaukee and shed its image as a low-ranked city for startups, Sheldon Lubar said. Lubar “My hope is this is going to be transformative for Milwaukee and the state,” he said. “We will make people conscious of the significance of small business and teach them how to start a business and teach them how to scale up into a bigger company.” The Lubars’ $10 million gift for the Lubar Center for Entrepreneurship follows another $10 million donation they made to the university in 2006 to endow professorships and student scholarships in the business school, which was renamed the Lubar School of Business. The new Lubar Center for Entrepreneurship building is expected to cost about $8 million, and the remainder of the Lubars’ donation, along with another $15 million the college is raising, will support operations. The center will offer programming and courses in entrepreneurship, and is expected to be operational by early 2018. One of the organizations already working with Milwaukee’s small businesses to promote growth is Scale Up Milwaukee, which plans to move its headquarters into the Center for Entrepreneurship, Lubar said. A rendering of the Lubar Center for Entrepreneurship. The eventual goal is to spin off Scale Up Milwaukee from the Greater Milwaukee Committee, where it is currently based, and house it in the Lubar Center, said Brian Schupper, director of policy at the GMC. That’s similar to what other programs, like BizStarts Milwaukee and The Water Council, have been able to do after incubating within the GMC. Scale Up, with which Lubar is involved both as a donor and steering council member, currently has just one employee and two contracted consultants. “Part of the vision … is that eventually Scale Up Milwaukee will have its home over there at the center itself,” Schupper said. “The reason I’m using the word home versus anything more concrete, is I’m not sure what it’s going to look like. At a minimum, it would be shared presence and shared resources.” But Scale Up isn’t the only organization with which the Lubar Center could collaborate, Lubar said. “I would hope that we would partner with everyone,” he said. “I’m going to be on this advisory council and there’s no shortage of ideas flowing from all directions.” The Lubar Center will also serve entrepreneurial students internally, in all 14 of UWM’s schools and colleges. The center will advance existing entrepreneurial initiatives in the Lubar School of Business, the College of Engineering & Applied Science, and the School of Freshwater Sciences, among others, according to university officials. Brian Thompson, […]

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