The former Julien Shade Shop building in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward neighborhood has been converted into 31 luxury apartments with two first floor retail spaces.
Four apartments have been leased since Jan. 1 and HKS Holdings LLC, the developers behind the project, just leased 4,200 square feet of the 6,000 total square feet of ground floor retail space to Orangetheory Fitness.
“We always knew this was a great location,” said Joe Klein, one of the principals of HKS. “This is going to become the middle of the Third Ward at some point and we’re just a block off Broadway.”
HKS Holdings purchased the five-story, 49,340-square-foot building at 338-340 N. Milwaukee St., from Joan Julien, president of Sycamore Building and Investment Co. for $2.9 million in May 2016.
The Julien Shade Shop relocated to West Allis at that time.
HKS Holdings spent about 18 months converting the 109-year-old building into 31 apartments and adding a rooftop penthouse, which includes four apartments.
The building, which is now called Atelier, was designed by Milwaukee architectural firm Engberg Anderson.
The apartments range from studio to two bedroom with the majority being one bedroom, one bathroom. Prices range from $1,650 to $2,800. The penthouse apartments are upwards of $3,900.
“There is such a limited supply of condominiums for sale not only in the Third Ward but downtown, that we wanted to build an apartment with condo finishes,” said Tyler Hawley, an HKS principal.
The apartments have fully-vented hoods over gas stoves, semi-built in refrigerators and floor-to-ceiling tile in the bathrooms. There are views of the city and lake but residents cannot hear outside traffic.
HKS is the same firm that built the Kimpton Journeyman Hotel in the Third Ward. HKS also converted the Posner Building in downtown Milwaukee to apartments and developed the Global Water Center building.
