Back in March, we wrote about the end of “The Spot 4MKE,” an ill-fated “placemaking” project from Creative Alliance Milwaukee that sought to inject some life into a disused downtown parking lot on the corner of N. 4th St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. Sadly, it seemed some “colorful picnic tables, food trucks, live music, and other activate-y activities” just weren’t enough to make a place out of the lot. Now, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Milwaukee Business Journal, the city-owned spot of the former Spot—also the site of three failed hotel developments over the years—is once again up for sale. What’s more, its sale will be used to pay for a future streetcar expansion. Writes Tom Daykin at the Journal Sentinel:
Property taxes generated by new commercial development at that parcel would provide up to an estimated $8.1 million for a proposed expansion of the downtown streetcar project, according to city Redevelopment Authority notice published Thursday.
That expansion would be on N. 4th St., and would connect the Milwaukee Intermodal Station, 433 W. St. Paul Ave., to the new Milwaukee Bucks arena, at N. 4th St. and W. Highland Ave.
Daykin mentions The Spot 4MKE near the bottom of his piece, noting “the Creative Alliance’s efforts to attract more funding to continue the program fell short.” He also quotes a Project for Public Spaces executive as saying The Spot “was not a well developed and executed program.” R.I.P. Again.
Listen to a further discussion of The Spot 4MKE here.