Downtown Milwaukee has plenty of places to go for a good time. Bar hoppers can hit the Water Street pubs or the trendy bars and clubs on Milwaukee Street or Brady Street. Art lovers can visit the Milwaukee Art Museum on the lakefront. Natural history buffs can check out the Milwaukee Public Museum on the west side of downtown.
Sports fans know their way to the Bradley Center for Milwaukee Bucks, Marquette University and Milwaukee Admirals games.
The Historic Third Ward has become a shopper’s delight with several boutique stores.
When visitors get hungry, they have numerous choices of places to eat all over downtown.
The only problem is all of these attractions are scattered throughout the downtown area. The downtown lacks a central entertainment hub or district that ties everything together and is an obvious destination point.
Afshin Ghazi hopes to solve that problem for Milwaukee.
Ghazi is the founder and president of The Ghazi Company, a Charlotte, N.C.-based commercial real estate development firm.
City of Milwaukee officials selected Ghazi’s firm to develop a two-acre, vacant city-owned lot at the southwest corner of North Fourth Street and Wisconsin Avenue. The property, a parking lot, is in a prime location just south of the Midwest Airlines Center.
Ghazi plans to build a mixed-use development, called Catalyst, on the site with three connected buildings: a condo tower with 200 residential units (about 25 to 30 stories tall); a four-story building with at least 100,000 square feet of restaurant, retail and entertainment space; and a 12-story hotel with 160 to 170 rooms. The project will be similar to the EpiCentre development that Ghazi is building in Charlotte.
The restaurant, retail and entertainment space could provide a huge boost to Milwaukee’s convention center and the Shops of Grand Avenue, located just to the east. The Ghazi development would provide more things for convention goers to do in downtown Milwaukee and it could complement the stores at Grand Avenue, helping the mall attract more shoppers and stores.
“The project we are putting together should be a catalyst for a lot of additional growth and development in and around our project,” Ghazi said. “It truly is a 24-hour a day, mixed-use development.”
Planning for the development is progressing nicely, Ghazi said. Financing is “not an issue” and construction could begin next summer, he said.
Ghazi recently struck a deal to purchase the 900-space parking structure to the south of the property from Wispark LLC, the real estate development arm of Wisconsin Energy Corp., The spaces are used by office workers during the day, and at night they will be used by hotel guests and visitors to the stores, restaurants and entertainment venues in the Ghazi development. Ghazi declined to disclose the purchase price for the parking structure.
Ghazi is negotiating with retail tenants and hotel flags, but declined to disclose who he is talking to. The project will have a mix of high-end restaurants and casual restaurants. Ghazi said he hopes to attract a high-end bowling alley. He also said a small movie theater is a possibility.
The large amount of retail, restaurant and entertainment space, combined with the location next to the convention center, the 730-room Hilton Milwaukee City Center hotel, Capital Grille restaurant and the Shops of Grand Avenue should make the development into the entertainment hub of downtown Milwaukee, which is sorely needed, Ghazi said.
“What you have is a fragmented entertainment district,” he said. “Hopefully that’s something we can bring, all of the entertainment into a central hub.”
When people come to downtown Milwaukee, Ghazi hopes they consider his development a “can’t miss” destination point.
“We’re going to be the beginning, middle or end of people’s experience in downtown Milwaukee,” he said.
City officials are still working with Ghazi to finalize the development plans, said Richard “Rocky” Marcoux, commissioner of the Department of City Development.
“It’s a catalytic site,” Marcoux said. “That project is not written in stone. It is a work in progress. We’re looking at how all of these components fit in with downtown.”
Ghazi said he plans to make the project flexible, so it will be able to add floors, even after construction begins, if the condo sales warrant it. He declined to disclose the sale price for the condos. However, Ghazi said his project will be very competitive with other downtown condo developments because residents will enjoy “incredible views” and they will be able to take advantage of the entertainment venues right outside of the building’s front doors.
“I believe we are building a much better mousetrap than those other (condo) developments,” he said. “The views are going to be incredible. You will have not only lake views, but also skyline views. Most downtown condos have one or the other, we will have both.”
Ghazi said he is receiving a positive response from potential retail tenants who are starting to turn their attention to second-tier markets such as Milwaukee.
“Milwaukee really hasn’t hit the radar screen for a lot of the national (retail) concepts yet,” he said. “Milwaukee, from a national perspective, it’s been a quiet town.”
Despite that, Ghazi says downtown Milwaukee has a lot going for it.
“If you were to go to downtown Charlotte (which today is booming) five years ago, it was a ghost town,” he said. “You have a stronger base that you are starting from. Milwaukee has more residential downtown than Charlotte did. (Milwaukee has) a beautiful downtown with a nice skyline. It’s clean. It’s safe.”
Afshin Ghazi Founder and president The Ghazi Co.
Headquarters: Charlotte, N.C.
Web site: www.theghazicompany.com
