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,
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, five-story building at 5506 7th Ave.
The project kicks off what will be upwards of a $450 million project to redevelop an underutilized part of downtown Kenosha.
"We got a blank canvas between the southern and northern portion of downtown, and it's a great opportunity to redefine the future of Kenosha," said Scott Yauck, president and CEO of Cobalt Partners.
Fitting with the nautical theme of the project, the market rate apartment building will be known as the Karrick. Carrick is a nautical term for a type of knot, and the development team traded the first letter for a K to alliterate with Kenosha.
"It captures the strength inherent in the nautical knot," Yauck explained. "The knot symbolizes connectivity and reflects the building's pivotal role to transform downtown Kenosha. It's a connection point between the north and the south, between public and private partnership, people and businesses coming together in a central place."
[caption id="attachment_586136" align="aligncenter" width="1020"] 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."
The city is supporting the redevelopment with an existing tax incremental district, and the developers are securing additional financing for each building within the redevelopment as the project proceeds.
Due to the current economic headwinds developers are facing, including high interest rates, limited access to loans and high construction costs, it was a challenge to get financing for the first building to the finish line, according to Mike Krolczyk, senior vice president at C.D. Smith.
"But where you see dust and gravel, I see opportunity and energy," he said.
Following the construction of the Karrick, construction will begin on either a 188-unit, 10-story apartment building at 618 55th St. or a block of for-sale townhomes at the northeast corner of 55th Street and 6th Avenue, Yauck said.
[caption id="attachment_578689" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Conceptual rendering of the Kenosha Harbor District.[/caption]
