833 East groundbreaking is today

Barrett Drops Hotel From The Couture Plans

200-room Westin Hotel proposed for downtown

A 200-room Westin Hotel is being proposed for a site near downtown Milwaukee’s lakefront. Jackson Street Management wants to build the hotel about a half-block south of E. Michigan St., between N. Cass and N. Van Buren streets. That site, owned by U.S. Bank, is between the U.S. Bank Center’s galleria and that office tower’s parking structure north of E. Clybourn St. It would connect to the galleria level. Jackson Street Management, which operates the 160-room Aloft Hotel, 1230 N. Old World 3rd St., and the new 205-room Marriott Hotel, 323 E. Wisconsin Ave., plans to build a hotel at the U.S. Bank site, spokesman Evan Zeppos said Monday. Zeppos declined to name the hotel brand, which he called a high-quality franchise. He also declined to discuss the prospective hotel’s room number or other details, including its financing. But another source who is familiar with the proposal said it would be a 200-room Westin. Westin is a higher-end brand owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. Other Starwood brands include Aloft, Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton. Jackson Street Management’s plans are driven by market demand, said Zeppos, who said the firm hopes to begin work this year on the new hotel. Last year, demand for Milwaukee hotel rooms increased 8.5%, while the city’s supply of hotel rooms increased 8%, said Paul Upchurch, chief executive officer at Visit Milwaukee, which markets the city to tourists and convention planners. “So, demand outpaced supply in 2013,” Upchurch said during a briefing before the Common Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee. The Westin would be about one block west of the proposed 44-story Couture development, which was initially proposed as a hotel and high-end apartments. But developer Rick Barrett said Monday he’s revised those plans to drop the hotel and replace it with more apartments in order to simplify the project, and meet his goal of starting construction in 2015. Barrett also cited the strong demand for apartments, with his downtown Moderne high-rise fully occupied. The revised Couture, with 294 apartments, which would be built on the site of the underused Downtown Transit Center. Barrett has been negotiating to buy the county-owned transit center, 909 E. Michigan St., which would need County Board approval. The Westin also would be just immediately west of the new 17-story, 358,017-square-foot 833 Eastoffice building, at 833 E. Michigan St. The groundbreaking on 833 East is set for Wednesday, with completion by February 2016, said developer Mark Irgens.

New hotel, 14-floor renovation for Baird in works at U.S. Bank Center

The U.S. Bank Center, surrounded by development proposals on Milwaukee’s lakefront, has a lot going on within its own footprint, including a potential 200-room hotel and a 14-floor renovation for Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. U.S. Bank’s tower at 777 E. Wisconsin Ave. is at the center of the downtown lakefront redevelopment area. U.S. Bank this month will sell a portion of its garage on East Michigan Street to Irgens for its 18-story office tower. Another step to the east of the garage, Rick Barrett and Milwaukee County officials areworking on the Couture high-rise, which includes a hotel to replace the Downtown Transit Center. The site, north of U.S. Bank’s parking structure, is not ideal for housing, and office is impractical because Irgens’ project will meet the current demand, Ullrich said. U.S. Bank officials are talking with potential developers for a hotel to be built on a 1-acre courtyard east of North Van Buren Street, said Joe Ullrich, U.S. Bank vice president. He declined to discuss details because negotiations are ongoing. There’s more going on for U.S. Bank in the area. Financial services company Baird is renovating 14 floors it occupies in the center’s main tower, Ullrich said. The company last year signed a 15-year lease renewal for that space. U.S. Bank is spending $3.5 million renovating a neighboring office building it occupies at East Michigan and North Jackson streets, Ullrich said. That buildingsold in October after U.S. Bank renewed its lease to occupy 110,000 square feet there.

Deconstructing the NML building project from the inside

The Norman fire burns in the memories of former residents

It has been 23 years since fire destroyed The Norman apartment building, 634 W. Wisconsin Ave. Many of the former residents are still impacted by the tragic event today, mostly because lives were lost, but also because the massive blaze incinerated a structure that housed a community steeped in personal and artistic freedom. “The Norman was full of drag queens and drug dealers and artists and musicians and dancers. It was a hotbed of alternative lifestyles. It was amazing,” says Norman tenant Ricky Becker. The possibility of a fire at The Norman was predicted – even joked about – for years. It was called a fire trap, a tinder box, and the fact the fire department was located across the street from the once opulent, five-story building became both a source of comfort and irony for residents. “We knew when we lived there that the place could easily burn down someday,” says Keith Brammer, who lived in the mixed-use building “around 1981” with his bandmates from Die Kreuzen. When The Norman actually did catch fire on Jan. 12, 1991 at approximately 9:30 a.m., neither the predictions of the residents nor the proximity of the fire station could stop the blaze from consuming the building along with the lives of four people and about a dozen pets. Phyllis Chobot, Margaret Joyner and Joyner’s two children, Fredrico and Nicolas Joyner, were unable to make it out of the building in time and died in the fire. The fire also destroyed first-floor businesses Alan Preuss Florists, You Light Up My Life (a T-shirt shop), Denmark adult book store and a submarine sandwich shop. The decrepit building was constructed primarily of wood and featured a massive wooden staircase that stretched up the center of the structure. This was one of the main reasons for the building’s swift flammability. Warren “Ski” Skonieczny, a now-retired deputy chief of the Milwaukee Fire Department, was among those who fought the five-alarm fire. “There was an atrium in the center of The Norman from the first floor to the roof – the center was like Lambeau Field and the apartments were like the seats – so when the fire started on the second floor, it created a cyclone up the middle. It created its own storm,” says Skonieczny. Plus, because of the transient nature of the tenants, many of the apartments and hallways were overstuffed with abandoned belongings so there was plenty of fuel to keep the flames blazing. “It was always my joke that The Norman spontaneously combusted because of all the bad art. There was a lot of it. And some of it was mine,” says Norman tenant Stanley Ryan Jones. The force of the “cyclone” of flames and the gusting winter winds blew pieces of the Norman roof as far away as Bay View. However, the fact it was winter most likely saved other buildings and lives. “The buildings were close together and the snow on the roofs probably stopped the fire from spreading,” says Skonieczny. […]

Posner Building will have some moderate-income apartments

A higher-end apartment building planned for downtown Milwaukee’s west side will have 20% of its units set aside for moderate-income renters, under a provision tied to the building’s state financing help. The mostly vacant Posner Building, 152 W. Wisconsin Ave., will be converted into 105 apartments by HKS Holdings LLC. The development’s main financing will be a $13.75 million loan from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. That authority loan’s provisions include a requirement that 20% of the apartments be set aside for individuals or families making less than or equal to 80% of Milwaukee County’s median income, said Kevin Fischer, authority spokesman. That would be just over $39,300 for an individual, with the income limit rising as the number of people in the household increases. Fischer didn’t have information on the development’s proposed rents, and an HKS partner couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday. The $23.5 million development’s financing package will include $5.3 million in state and federal historic tax credits, which cover part of the costs of restoring older buildings; $1.4 million in equity cash; and a $500,000 Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. grant, according to a Department of City Development report. Also, the developers will be able to recover up to $2.5 million through new property taxes generated by the building’s improvements. That tax incremental financing district will require Common Council approval, with a Redevelopment Authority hearing set for Thursday. HKS, owned by Tyler Hawley, Joe Klein and Kyle Strigenz, will begin work on redeveloping the seven-story Posner Building by Oct. 31, the city report said. The project will include new street-level retail space next to Mo’s Irish Pub, which will remain at the Posner Building, as well as underground parking. The developers plan to lease additional parking spaces at the adjacent city-owned parking structure on Plankinton Ave. The Posner Building project is among a series of new apartment developments in the works for downtown’s west side. They include a $28 million proposal by Chicago developer John Mangel to convert the former ffices, 401 W. Michigan St., into 188 high-end units.

More apartments proposed in Bay View

Overseeing London Cleaners — and family — one stitch at a time

Downtown Posner Building to become apartments

The Posner Building would be converted into high-end apartments, under a newly disclosed plans that would help revive downtown Milwaukee’s west side. The seven-story building, 152 W. Wisconsin Ave., features Mo’s Irish Tavern on parts of the first and second floors, but has been otherwise largely vacant for several years. HKS Holdings LLC, led by Tyler Hawley, Joe Klein and Kyle Strigenz, has agreed to convert the building’s empty upper floors into 105 apartments, city officials announced Thursday. The redeveloped building also will include new street-level retail space next to Mo’s Irish Tavern, which will remain. Financing for the project will include a $13.75 million market-rate loan from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. Also, HKS Holdings will be able to recover up to $2.5 million through new property taxes from the building’s improvements. That tax incremental financing district will require Common Council approval. The building, with around 108,000 square feet, is owned by Mostreet LLC, a group led by Mo’s owner John Vassallo. The apartment development is among several projects taking advantage ofincreased state funds to redevelop historic buildings. The Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker last year approved legislation that raised the state historic preservation tax credit from 5% of qualified renovation costs to 20% of those costs. Those credits can be combined with 20% federal historic preservation tax credits. Those higher state credits, which took effect Jan. 31, have led to greater interest in historic preservation developments. The development also will receive a Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. grant. The Posner Building project is among a series of new apartment developments in the works for downtown’s west side. They include a $28 million proposal by Chicago developer John Mangel to convert the former Blue Cross offices, 401 W. Michigan St., into 188 high-end units. “I am pleased the Posner Building will again be a vital part of West Wisconsin Avenue,” Mayor Tom Barrett said, in a statement.  “A lot of good work is underway to strengthen this part of Milwaukee’s downtown. Additional residential development and more street-facing retail are certainly part of Wisconsin Avenue’s future.” Various plans to redevelop the Posner Building have been discussed off and on since at least 2000. Originally called the Caswell Building, the first phase was built in 1907 on Wisconsin Ave. by Max Goldstine, of Commonwealth Realty, and named for Napoleon Bonaparte Caswell, a Milwaukee pioneer and land developer. An addition, along Plankinton Ave., was built a decade later.

Architect of GOP upheaval

To understand the secession and nullification resolution and the anti-Common Core proposals being voted on at the state GOP’s convention this weekend, you need to know Michael S. Murphy. He’s a prominent party official, a leader of the libertarian faction within the state Republican Party and a Milwaukee cop. The guy also is completely outrageous. Murphy — unrelated to the Milwaukee alderman — has called secession “as American as apple pie” and spoke at a pro-nullification conference in Waukesha earlier this year. Also, he has suggested that someone send U.S. Sen. John McCain, a former POW, “back to Vietnam.” As for prominent state Republicans, he has referred to Gov. Scott Walker as “Pontius Walker” on a job-creation effort, called on U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to resign, and described U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan as “lying Ryan,” a “progressive” and a “RINO,” or Republican In Name Only. “I have only two words for Ryan,” Murphy wrote on Facebook. “(Expletive) him!” Many Republican officials have had enough of the self-appointed guardian of what Murphy considers conservative orthodoxy. “He’s our Graeme Zielinski,” a longtime Republican said this week, referring to the former Democratic Party official who was ousted over a series of outrageous posts on Twitter. “It’s easy to throw stuff from the cheap seats.” But Murphy — an acolyte of Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — contends he is simply trying to hold GOP officials to the conservative principles laid out by the Founding Fathers. “We are the party,” Murphy said this week. “The politicians who run with our label need to adhere to us. We don’t adhere to them. It seems too often we’ll let someone like Paul Ryan run rampant over the platform and resolutions and not hold the man accountable.” He continued, “Those who go off the reservation, they need to be pulled back in.” The 41-year-old officer is not just another Republican. He’s a member of the state GOP’s executive committee, vice chairman of its 4th Congressional District caucus, head of the Milwaukee County Republican Party’s south branch and a member of the Racine County GOP. He also leads the group of “liberty” Republicans, who favor libertarian principles, and is a member of the John Birch Society. “I’m all over the place,” Murphy said this week. He has risen to prominence in the party with the news that delegates at the state GOP convention on Saturday will vote on a proposed resolution that would assert Wisconsin’s right to secede from the United States if elected federal officials and representatives were thought to have overstepped their bounds. The same resolution calls on state lawmakers to nullify certain federal laws, including Obamacare, as well as Common Core school standards and drone usage. But Murphy has said he is concerned that Democrats could use the resolution to try to tarnish Walker, who is running for re-election this fall. Walker has criticized the proposal. Murphy has said a pro-nullification resolution — stripped of the secession reference — could pass. Murphy also is […]

Noe scandal and its aftermath just won’t go away