MILWAUKEE — Almost 600 affordable apartments will be built around Milwaukee's upcoming Harbor District redevelopment, according to our partners at the Milwaukee Business Journal.
That's about 80 percent more than what was previously proposed in the plan. Bear Real Estate Group, based in Kenosha, wants to build 576 apartments on the former Filer & Stowell complex at 147 E. Becher St.
This comes after the Milwaukee Common Council approved a $835,000 grant on Tuesday to help fund the project. The apartment complex will cost about $180 million. They originally planned for 320 apartments.
Company CEO S.R. Mills says pending more approvals from the city, the project could start as early as the beginning of 2023. The first building would open to tenants by the third quarter of 2024, and the remaining buildings would open after that, the BizJournal reports.
According to Mills, apartments would be priced to be affordable to people earning 60 percent of the area's medium income. Some units therefore would be for renters earning as much as 80 percent of the medium while others would be for people earning 40 percent or less.
The Harbor District, envisioned as an expansive redevelopment focusing people's attention on the city's rivers, is set to be completed in 2024. The centerpiece of the project is an extension of our famed riverwalk. The new riverwalk will stretch almost three-quarters of a mile between the end of East Greenfield Avenue and the South Kinnickinnic Avenue bridge. That stretch is divided by railroad tracks, the same tracks that can be seen in Engberg Anderson Architects' rendering of the proposed 600 apartments.
The riverwalk is expected to cost about $14.5 million. Public funds for the new riverwalk will in part come from property tax revenue made by Komatsu Mining's new offices in the Harbor District. The city usually picks up most of the tab of new riverwalk segments; the adjacent property owner pays the rest, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Tom Daykin.
The riverwalk will be wide enough for both bikers and pedestrians, according to the city, and will contain 250 new trees and other efforts to connect residents with the city's aquatic environment.
