Whoever would have imagined the residential and commercial development that has occurred and is occurring in and around downtown Milwaukee?
have been in the commercial real estate business going on 32 years in Milwaukee and I never saw or anticipated what has happened and what is planned. I wonder how many of us in the business really expected or predicted what is happening:
– Two new luxury high-rises on Prospect Avenue.
– The tremendous residential development along both sides of the Milwaukee River in and around the Riverwest neighborhood.
– The complete redevelopment of the Pfister & Vogel tanning plant into approximately 500 residential units over the next several years;
– A $500 million redevelopment of the east side St. Mary’s Hospital campus that will spearhead other redevelopment in the East North Avenue corridor.
– The wonderful redevelopment of the Kenilworth Building on Prospect.
– The potential redevelopment of part of Downer Avenue.
– All of the redevelopment that has occurred in the Third Ward and is now spilling over into the Fifth Ward.
– The incredible redevelopment and new development along the Milwaukee River at Water Street.
– The redevelopment of the former Pabst Brewery property, which serves as the west anchor to downtown.
– The brand new 300,000-square-foot Manpower Inc. headquarters building, which has now extended downtown north across the Milwaukee River.
– The potential redevelopment of areas surrounding the Bradley Center.
– The recently announced redevelopment of the Sidney Hih block into office/hotel/retail.
– The constant hope of another downtown high-rise office building.
– The potential redevelopment of lands in the Park East Freeway corridor from Interstate 43 east to Jackson Street.
And every time we think we are finished, the list keeps going on and on. It is impressive, it is magnificent and I wonder how many of us can truly admit they predicted it. On behalf of the entire community, not just the real estate community, but the community at large, I want to thank all of the developers and investors who had the foresight and the nerve to speculate on land, to take risks, to put their credibility on the line for any number of projects that have benefited our city and metropolitan area.
It has been a great run, and for this run to continue, for us to complete the job, we must collectively redevelop the Park East corridor. In addition to some of the projects already mentioned, there are other projects on the drawing board. This community, the business community and the real estate community need the city and the county to be on the same page, to act as one, to be united, to sit in a room and figure things out.
This is not about finger-pointing. The city and county are made up individually of good people, people who know how to get things done, people who want to do things right and people who care about this city and metropolitan area.
Nothing is easy here … Our industrial market has gone through a dramatic change over the last 20 years. Getting new office buildings out of the ground, just one, is very challenging, and yet, our immediate downtown area is alive, people are moving back, restaurants are opening, major retail or entertainment could come downtown and we need to finish the job.
It took two years to clear the Park East Freeway, and now we have to make it happen. We have two political bodies, and for the good of the entire community, they must seem like one when it comes to the Park East corridor.
Max Rasansky is managing director of C.B. Richard Ellis in Milwaukee.
