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.
• Back in September, plans were announced to build a nine-to-10-story, 200-to-250-room Marriott Autograph Hotel on a vacant lot at 420 W. Juneau Ave., just north of Fiserv Forum. Now, newly updated plans indicate the project will be a nine-story building with 205 rooms, plus “8,700 square feet of meeting and event space, street-level retail space at the hotel’s southwest corner and restaurant/lounge/entertainment space on the top floor.” So there you go! [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• Remember that plan to convert the former Humphrey Scottish Rite Masonic Center at 790 N. Van Buren St. into a giant hotel with 14 additional floors? Well, that plan was scrapped, and the historic building may become a 22-unit apartment building instead. Though there’s still the matter of 20 stained-glass windows that no one seems to want… [Urban Milwaukee]
• Remember Marquette University’s old beer-can residence hall (McCormick Hall) at 1530 W. Wisconsin Ave.? The one that was knocked down in 2019 and 2020? Well, work begins…TODAY on its replacement: a $60 million, four-story, 100,000-square-foot home for the Marquette Business and Innovation Leadership Programs. [Urban Milwaukee]
• After four years of stops and starts, it seems that Pabst Brewing Co.’s former malt house at 1009 W. Juneau Ave. will finally complete its transformation into…a seven-floor, 118-unit apartment building known as the Malt House Lofts. The building is set to open in June. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• Plans to build a four-story, 122-room WoodSpring Suites hotel on the city’s far northwest side, near the border of Menomonee Falls, are moving forward. [Urban Milwaukee]
• Plans to build a 64-unit second phase of the Avenir apartment complex at 418 E. Ogden Ave., near the East Pointe Marketplace, may come to fruition in April. Or be put off until 2022. [Urban Milwaukee]
• All systems are go for that nine-story, 251-unit “Nova” apartment building on the site of the old Buca di Beppo restaurant, 1237 N. Van Buren Ave. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• Another roundup of new and wonderful things, another update on the drama surrounding the 44-story lakeside Couture luxury apartment tower and streetcar hub and god knows what else development that was announced NINE YEARS AGO and still hasn’t broken ground. It’s gonna happen this time, though. Really. This spring. Or maybe July. Good grief. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• 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 Shit”) archives