Construction has begun on the first of several buildings planned in downtown Kenosha as part of a nine-block redevelopment effort known as the Kenosha Harbor District. Leaders from Milwaukee-based Cobalt Partners and Fond du Lac-based C.D. Smith, as well as the City of Kenosha, marked the milestone with a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for a 158-unit,
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Rendering of the five-story apartment building. Rendering from Plunkett Raysich Architects[/caption]
Working with Plunkett Raysich Architects, the building will include amenities common in modern luxury apartment buildings like club rooms, a pet wash and shuffleboards, among others.
After other redevelopment proposals had not materialized in downtown Kenosha, in May 2023 concept plans were unveiled for the Kenosha Harbor District, which Cobalt Partners and C.D. Smith developed through a partnership known as Cobalt Smith. At full buildout, it envisions a total of 1,000 new housing units, a market hall, a new City Hall, a hotel and other retail, office buildings all built over around 10 years.
"I moved downtown in 1983 when it was very much a bustling industrial city," said Bill Siel, the alderman representing downtown Kenosha. "For the last 20 years, I've been hearing about downtown redevelopment. For the last five years, I've thrown away a stack of really interesting blueprints, diagrams artist renderings. History is being made with this groundbreaking transforming the city from an industrial city to a residential city."
Conceptual rendering of the Kenosha Harbor District.[/caption]