The stores that used to line the second floor of the Plankinton Arcade building at The Shops of Grand Avenue are currently being transformed into 50 apartments.
The Milwaukee County Historical Society has opened Brew City MKE, an exhibit paying homage to the city’s love of beer, in the former Applebee’s restaurant space along West Wisconsin Avenue.
Next up, at least according to the ambitious redevelopment plans unveiled 18 months ago by Grand Avenue’s owners, should be a large office development.
In April 2016, the mall’s ownership group, Milwaukee-based Aggero Group LLC and Minneapolis-based Hempel Cos., unveiled a $65 million plan for the long-struggling downtown Milwaukee mall, which they purchased in December 2015 for $24.5 million.
The plan included up to 120,000 square feet of office space on the second and third floors, eliminating the current food court. Dining would be moved to a first floor food hall, the group said.
Since the plans were announced, the ownership group has purchased the upper four floors of the six-story Matthews Building at 301 W. Wisconsin Ave., which is located just west of the mall entrance. It already owned the first two floors of the building.
By purchasing the building, which is connected to the shopping center on the second and third floors, the ownership was able to make improvements that made it more attractive to office tenants. Watton Law Group has since leased 10,000 square feet on the fifth floor of the Matthews Building.
Grand Avenue has made other progress, as well. Fresenius Medical Care will lease about 12,000 square feet on the ground floor of the Plankinton Arcade for a dialysis clinic. Bike sharing organization Bublr Bikes moved its headquarters from Schlitz Park to Grand Avenue earlier this year.
To disguise the clinic from passersby on Wisconsin Avenue, a digital LED animated graphic art and civic display will be added to the windows, said Chris Socha with TKWA UrbanLab, who is designing the updated Grand Avenue. The owners will need approval from the city Board of Zoning Appeals before the display can be added.
The 50 apartments on the second floor of the Plankinton Arcade, called Plankinton Clover, will be available in spring 2018
“We want to honor the elegance of the Plankinton building and we are doing that by recreating historic storefronts that would line and face the public passage,” Socha said.
About 15 apartments will have their own entrances from the atrium, Socha said. Those units will have private porches that are decorated like historic storefronts and look out into the mall.
The mall owners are still hoping to attract a grocery store, and now that the apartments are being constructed, attention will be turned toward the west side of the mall and the offices, Socha said
“We’ve got some really exciting stuff in the works to make the west side (of the mall) a real destination for the city,” Socha said. “We’ve been testing the waters (regarding office tenants) to see what the appetite is out there in terms of what people want. It has taken awhile to get to this point. It will be game changing.”
Colliers International|Wisconsin is leasing the office space. Colliers brokers referred questions to Tony Janowiec, one of the mall owners, who has not returned calls or emails from BizTimes about the Grand Avenue project for several months.
Whoever leases space on the second and third level of the mall will overlook the rest of the development. They will also have large floor plates, skylights, floor-to-ceiling windows in some parts of the space, and parking, which brokers say is unique for the downtown market.
The drawback, brokers say, is still the stigma West Wisconsin Avenue has for some office users.
Jack Jacobson, principal at MLG Commercial, said with creative thinking and the right tenant, he thinks the office space could be leased at the Grand Avenue.
“My initial gut reaction would have been no, but if you look at Schlitz Park and what Gary Grunau did there, (that shows) it’s doable (at Grand Avenue),” Jacobson said.
Jacobson also pointed to the residential development that has occurred west of the Milwaukee River downtown, which should help spur office and retail development in that area.
“If you can get millennials living on that side of the river, there will be employees,” Jacobson said. “We just had a 20,000-square-foot tenant looking at the ASQ building. They went in a different direction, but five years ago, they would have never considered that location. I consider that pretty positive.”
Ned Purtell, a partner with Founders 3, said it makes sense for office users to look to the west side of downtown, considering the Historic Third Ward and Central Business District have continued to grow.
“It’s logical that at some point, that activity will continue to spill out,” Purtell said. “I think if they gut (space in Grand Avenue), and have a shell to show tenants, it would lease relatively quickly. Trying to lease from an information sheet is difficult.”
