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.
• There’s new shit that gets announced and suddenly pops up nine months later, and then there’s new shit that gets proposed in 2012 and never materializes. So it goes for the loooong-in-development Couture, a 44-story, 322-unit luxury apartment tower that’s coming to 909 E. Michigan St. (apparently). As the $122 million project continues to figure out its financing, however, another project may be in jeopardy: a lakefront loop for The Hop.
You see, the lakefront loop and an accompanying transit center are and always have been part of the Couture’s design, and they need to be built by 2020 in order to make good on a federal grant (and make the 2020 Democratic National Convention). If the Couture isn’t ready by then…well, the city may have to resort to building “a temporary stop for the lakefront loop—or even extending the route closer to the lakefront and building a station separate from the Couture’s transit hub.” Ugh.
At least the clusterf*ck led to this great exchange at a recent meeting of the Common Council’s Public Works Committee:
Milwaukee Public Works Commissioner Jeff Polenske: “We do have a project that’s moving forward.”
Ald. Michael Murphy: “You keep saying that. But it’s not.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• Speaking of things that won’t be ready in time for the DNC, a three-hotel development in downtown Milwaukee, well, won’t be ready in time for the DNC. [BizTimes]
• A massive development in Bayside will be slightly less massive. The original proposal called for a 30-story apartment tower; a revised proposal cuts that tower in half (and adds a library). [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• Up to $37 million in local funds may be used for the redevelopment of Bayshore Town Center. The big redevelopment plan? Knock down the old indoor mall and maybe put a hotel there or something. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• And speaking of malls, no one actually thinks that the Chinese investment group that owns Northridge is really going to turn it into an Asian Merchandise Market or whatever. [Urban Milwaukee]