A 10-story residential tower is planned at a site, formerly occupied by a Boys and Girls Club and a church, near Brady Street on Milwaukee’s Lower East Side.
The owners of the now-vacant property at 1632-1648 N. Franklin Place are proposing to rezone it from residential to detailed planned development and want to build a 10-story, multi-family residential building with 140 one- and two-bedroom market-rate apartments.
Between 180 and 190 parking spaces will be built underground and on the first floor.
The site is approximately one block south of Brady Street, between Franklin and Arlington place. Jeno Cataldo, a Milwaukee investment broker at JC Capital and Michael Klein, president of Klein Development in Milwaukee purchased the property in August 2015.
Klein Development was going to develop a 10-story, $15 million apartment building on a vacant site at 1027 N. Edison St., owned by the City of Milwaukee last year, but the proposal was later dropped when it was determined the parcel was too small.
Plans have not been formally submitted to the city yet for the Franklin Place project, but Cataldo and Klein have been working with the Department of City Development and Alderman Nik Kovac to come up with a design they believe will fit with the neighborhood, they said.
The developers are working with Eppstein Uhen Architects and have a design that will feature a building with four stories on the sides facing Franklin Place and Arlington Place with a 10-story tower in the middle.
“We spent a ton of time and energy trying to figure out how to maximize the site while being sensitive to the neighborhood and how we would fit in,” Cataldo said. “With four stories on each end and 10 in the middle, we think it will look fantastic.”
The two-story building that was previously on the site has already been demolished and Cataldo and Klein are hoping to begin construction on the apartment building by the end of the year.
Renderings of the proposed project will be released during a community meeting Kovac is holding on Monday, Sept. 26, at 6 p.m. at Arlington Court, 1633 N. Arlington Place.
Kovac said the developers were originally proposing something taller and wider but he believes they’ve gotten the design to a point that fits into the neighborhood.
“We think this will be great for the neighborhood,” Klein said. “It will drive a lot more retail demand over there and we’re very excited for it.”
