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.
• If you’re like us, you spend 97 percent of your waking day complaining about the lack of affordable workspace for Milwaukee’s much-ballyhooed but fitfully supported “creative class.” So long, buzzing hive of studios and practice spaces; hello, luxury apartments! Well, complain no further: Developer Ryan Pattee is proposing to buy a city-owned building at 1104 W. Mitchell St. and turn it into “space for artists and other creative workers.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel further specifies that “the building is to be converted into around 10 to 14 spaces for artists, as well as designers, information technology professionals and other younger creative workers.” Neat!
Pattee intends to spend $10,000 buying the property, and $122,750 renovating it. The storefront will look a little like this:
Other Pattee projects include the future home of the West End Conservatory, the future home of Reginald Baylor’s new household goods store, and a restored art studio and apartment building on National Avenue. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• So how much new shit has Milwaukee actually built in the past, oh, say, 14 years? Since 2004, when Mayor Tom Barrett first took office, the city has added a whopping 11,450 housing units in the greater downtown area alone. [Urban Milwaukee]
• A former Pabst warehouse at 326 W. Florida St. in Walker’s Point, which was originally set to become the second Global Water Center, is now set to become apartments. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• Habitat For Humanity’s Midtown 100 initiative aims to build or rehabilitate 100 homes in the city’s Midtown neighborhood, from 21st and Garfield to 29th and Vine. [Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service]
• A 216-room hotel dubbed “Drury Plaza Hotel Milwaukee Downtown” is coming to, well, Milwaukee Downtown (700 N. Water St., to be exact) in the summer of 2019. [Urban Milwaukee]
• The highly anticipated Sherman Phoenix project—a collective of 20 mostly black-owned businesses setting up shop in a former BMO Harris Bank that was damaged during the Sherman Park unrest of 2016—was awarded $250,000 by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• “What’s the status of The Couture? When will the controversial 1550 high rise on Prospect Avenue break ground? Will Johnson Controls ever build a lakefront tower? Who will pay for that lakefront park?” Department of City Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux has the answers. [Urban Milwaukee]
• Downtown new-shit development is hot, but is it cooling off? Urban Milwaukee has the answers. [Urban Milwaukee]