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 and wonderful things.
• An East Side apartment building with little-to-no on-site parking? WHAT A CONCEPT.
Yes, this new and novel idea made quite a splash last week. “New east side Milwaukee apartment complex will focus on attracting people who don’t own cars,” read one headline. “New Apartment Project Not About Cars,” read another. “New North Avenue apartment development to offer car-free lifestyle,” read yet another. All three stories detail plans to build a four-story, 53-unit, mixed-use apartment building on the site of long-shuttered East Side bars RC’s Beer Garden and Buddha Lounge. What makes the building so thrillingly car-free? Well, it will have two battery-powered Teslas that residents can use, it will be near bus lines and a Zipcar station (and that North Avenue McDonald’s, fyi), and it will have only 18 on-site parking stalls! Be gone, car culture!
Oh, and there will be 20 more stalls at a neighboring lot. So, just like every other apartment building on the East Side. (Ask us about the time we rented an off-site parking spot from some Buddhists! Or how our current parking spot is a block away from our apartment! Or something called “on-street parking”!)
Developers plan to demolish RC’s and Buddha Lounge (R.I.P.) and begin construction on the new car-free building this fall. [Urban Milwaukee]
• Speaking of the East Side, a long-stalled, five-year-old plan to build a 27-story, 192-unit apartment tower at 1550 N. Prospect Ave. “could be revived under new ownership.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• The new and wonderful things coming to Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood just keep getting newer and more wonderful. Developers now want to build a 54-unit, mixed-income apartment building and “creative arts and technology hub” on a city-owned lot on the corner of North and 6th. The so-called Bronzeville Creative Arts and Technology Hub would be near the planned Bronzeville Center for the Arts, as well as numerous redeveloped homes and office spaces. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• In “another big development for a largely vacant lot near Summerfest” news, developers want to build a five-story, 260-unit apartment building on a largely vacant lot near Summerfest. If you’re itching to move immediately next door to Summerfest and then complain about Summerfest, here’s your chance. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• Looks like the old Grand Theater at 2917-2923 N. Holton St. might be transformed into an art studio and some office space. [Urban Milwaukee]
• Developers are looking for more time to secure financing for a planned four-story, 38-unit apartment building near Fiserv Forum. Thirty-two of the units “would be set aside at below-market rates for households making less than 60% of the area’s median income.” [Urban Milwaukee]
• And what did we learn this week? Well, they’re always building something. Isn’t that right, old song from my old band?
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• Full “New And Wonderful Things” (formerly called “New Sh*t”) archives