Committee backs city aid for North End development
By TOM DAYKIN
tdaykin@journalsentinel.comPosted: Dec. 11, 2006
The largest project planned for Milwaukee's Park East area moved much closer to reality Monday, with a Common Council committee recommending city financial assistance for the development.
The Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee voted 5-0 in favor of providing up to $8.5 million in city funds for The North End. Mandel Group Inc. plans to build the $175 million development, with nearly 500 apartments and condominiums, on the site of the former Pfister & Vogel tannery overlooking the Milwaukee River.
The full council is to review the financing plan today.
The city funds would pay mainly for demolition and environmental cleanup, along with new streets, a riverwalk and other public improvements.
The city would borrow the $8.5 million, and those funds - along with $3.6 million in interest charges - would be repaid through property taxes generated by The North End. Property taxes would flow to the city and other local governments once those debts were paid.
City Comptroller W. Martin Morics endorsed the financing plan. He told committee members that the city's exposure for initial funding of the project is limited to $2.4 million. Additional council approval would be needed before other funds could be spent.
Mandel plans to create 395 condos, 88 apartments and 40,000 square feet of street-level retail space from 2007 through 2012. Mandel hopes to begin demolition and environmental cleanup this month, with construction beginning by next summer.
The North End's $64.2 million first phase is to feature 109 condos, 88 apartments and 25,000 square feet of retail space in six separate buildings. Construction on that phase, south of E. Pleasant St. between the river and N. Water St., would take 18 to 24 months.
The North End will be "a major catalyst" for the city's 64-acre Park East redevelopment area, said Ald. Michael D'Amato, committee chairman.
The area includes privately owned parcels and 16 acres of county-owned parcels left vacant when the Park East Freeway was demolished.
There are two major projects in the development stage on the county-owned lands.
Chicago-based RSC & Associates plans to develop apartments, retail space and two hotels on two blocks bordered by N. Jefferson St., N. Broadway, E. Lyon St. and E. Ogden Ave. Also, Mequon-based Ruvin Development Inc. and Dallas-based Gatehouse Capital Corp. plan to build a hotel, condos, offices and retail space on a block bordered by N. Old World 3rd and N. 4th streets and W. Juneau and W. McKinley avenues.
Projects on privately owned parcels include The Flatiron, a 38-unit condo building under construction at 1541 N. Jefferson St.
D'Amato said he looked forward to the time when the entire area, running from E. Brady St. south to McKinley Blvd., then west on McKinley Blvd. to the former Pabst brewery, would be filled with housing, shops, offices and other developments.
Currently, with the huge patches of vacant lots, the walk from Brady St. to the area near Pabst "might as well be 20 miles long," D'Amato said.
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