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.
• The proposed construction of the Bronzeville Center for the Arts on the site of an old DNR building on the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and North Avenue isn’t just about a new arts center. The proposal is part of a larger, $9.5 million, mixed-use, “scattered-site” project called Bronzeville Estates. Other components of Bronzeville Estates include the recently reopened America’s Black Holocaust Museum, the redevelopment of 4th Street School, new or redeveloped housing units, and new commercial spaces. Bronzeville Estates is the brainchild of developer Melissa Allen.
According to the [Milwaukee Business Journal]:
The housing includes five market-rate units and 25 intended for low income residents. Allen said six will be for people who were previously homeless.
The project also includes new mixed-use buildings at 540 W. North Ave. and 1940 North Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Allen would build a two-story building on the vacant lot at 1940 MLK Drive with two ground-floor commercial spaces with two second-floor apartments. An existing building next door would be renovated with two more commercial spaces and a second-floor apartment.
“All of the properties are within a half-mile radius of one another,” Allen said.
Allen said she will seek low-income housing tax credits and federal Covid-19 stimulus money that would be awarded through the state of Wisconsin. The city would sell the houses for $1 apiece, and the two commercial buildings would be sold for a combined $97,000.
• Yep, they’re still planning to build a 31-story, 333-unit apartment tower on the site of a surface parking lot across from the Milwaukee Public Market. And yep, the proposed 31-story, 333-unit apartment tower on the site of a surface parking lot across from the Milwaukee Public Market recently received another green light from the City. Developers are looking to begin construction in August. [Urban Milwaukee]
• Still pondering the [new band name alert] Gentrification Implications of that hulking, 144-unit Taxco Apartments complex where the old La Fuente used to be on 5th Street? Forget all that, because the project utilizes “a building technology virtually unheard of in Milwaukee: insulated concrete forms”! [Urban Milwaukee]
• Briohn Building Corporation wants to build a 179,500-square-foot industrial building on a long-vacant industrial lot in the industrial Menomonee Valley. The proposal, says Urban Milwaukee, “is described as a speculative project, where a tenant is not required to construct the building.” [Urban Milwaukee]
• The fate of the long-vacant Northridge Mall remains unclear, but a nearby storage facility built on the site of a former Pick ‘n Save is getting laaaaarger. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• Will the planned transit center of the “oh my god it’s actually happening” Couture apartment tower be connected via skywalk to the neighboring 833 East office building? The Couture folks would like it to be. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• Oh, and speaking of the Couture [another new band name alert], COUTURE CONCRETE POUR. [FOX 6]
• 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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