Depending on which news sources you follow, Milwaukee is going through either a “renaissance” or a “reinvention.” Or maybe it’s a “reboot” or a “reimagining,” like that crappy Tim Burton version of Planet Of The Apes. However you want to define it, it’s safe to say that Milwaukee is currently building a lot of new shit.
• It’s a New Shit tale as old as time: developer proposes 8 gazillion-unit mixed-use apartment complex for a Milwaukee neighborhood, Milwaukee neighbors in that Milwaukee neighborhood flip out. And so it goes for developer Scott Lurie, who, last Thursday at a public meeting at Bay View High School, proposed a 220-unit, two-building mixed-use complex for the 2700 block of S. Kinnickinnic Ave. The complex would include “two six-story, V-shaped buildings that would contain five floors of housing above one floor of commercial space,” and would be the “tallest along S. Kinnickinnic Ave.” Several houses would be demolished, and a nearby BMO Harris Bank branch would be moved to where the long-empty Bella’s Fat Cat building sits today. Neighbors were not impressed.
According to Urban Milwaukee, cries of “eww,” “yuck,” “don’t want it, turn it off,” and “that’s too much” were heard when Lurie and project architect Matt Rinka unveiled renderings for the complex. Later, when it was revealed that construction could begin as early as 2019, one resident exclaimed, “One year away from groundbreaking is ridiculous. It doesn’t give me a chance to move.”
Lurie and Rinka are now in the “reconvene to explore solutions” phase of the project. Folks who couldn’t make it to Thursday’s two-hour meeting can voice their support/displeasure electronically, by emailing [email protected]. [Urban Milwaukee]
• Dying for even more new apartments in Bay View? Of course you are. Developer Scott Genke is currently demolishing the American Legion building at 2860 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. to make room for a planned 37-unit apartment complex. Oh, and Genke is also planning to build an 18-unit apartment building on a vacant lot at 2557-2565 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. [Urban Milwaukee]
• That streetcar you may have heard about launches this weekend. Will it be godsend or a “boondoggle”? Who knows, but a historic office building located on the streetcar line at 828 N. Broadway will be converted into 73 apartments, and renamed Street Car Flats. Renovations are expected to begin in February. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]