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.

• In the ever-developing (heh) world of New Shit, there’s “long-in-the-works,” and then there’s “really long-in-the-works.” The Couture falls in the latter category. First proposed in 2012 (!), the $122 million, 44-story apartment building planned for the site of the former Downtown Transit Center has faced numerous delays and setbacks. Now comes news that project developer Barrett Lo Visionary Development has missed a deadline to apply for an $80 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development loan guarantee. Oops!

Beyond the latest round of financing woes, there’s another wrinkle: The Couture is supposed to include a transit hub for Milwaukee County’s Bus Rapid Transit system and the The Hop’s lakefront extension. BizTimes notes that the county “has until the end of 2020 to either deliver transit amenities to that site or pay back a $6.7 million grant it had received from the Federal Transit Administration to build the transit center.” [BizTimes]

• Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin wants to build roughly 48 “tiny homes” on a seven-acre site at 6767 N. 60th St. [Urban Milwaukee]

• The city might spend $500,000 on a new playground (and other improvements) for Bay View’s Zillman Park, which is located next to that giant new apartment complex on the northern edge of the neighborhood. [Milwaukee Business Journal]

• Soil testing crews are, well, testing the soil on the site of a planned 32-story, $150 million apartment building “on the parking lot and green space immediately south of [the] Convent Hill senior housing building at 455 E. Ogden Ave.” [Urban Milwaukee]

• Milwaukee is looking for proposals for an acre of city-owned land on N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, near Bader Philanthropies’ recently renovated headquarters. [Milwaukee Business Journal]

• Milwaukee has a new park, Harbor View Plaza! [Urban Milwaukee]

• Those folks who are so hot to outfit the Hoan Bridge with LED lights need to come up with $4.5 million before October 1 if they want to complete their project in time for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. [Milwaukee Business Journal]

• Marquette University is in the process of knocking down McCormick Hall on the corner of W. Wisconsin Avenue and N. 16th Street, and Urban Milwaukee has the pictures to prove it. [Urban Milwaukee]

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Co-Founder and Editor

Matt Wild weighs between 140 and 145 pounds. He lives on Milwaukee's east side.