Historic Milwaukee Inc. opposes demolition plans for downtown Marriott

Historic Milwaukee Inc., a non-profit organization that advocates for historic preservation, told the city of Milwaukee’s Historic Preservation Commission that it opposes plans to tear down five buildings that are more than 100 years old and in a historic district.
Jackson Street Management LLC, which includes Ed Carow and Mark Flaherty of Milwaukee-based hotel development firm Wave Development LLC, wants to build a 200-room, 10-story Marriott hotel wrapping around the Johnson Bank building located southwest of Wisconsin Avenue and Milwaukee Street in downtown Milwaukee. The $50 million project will not require any city subsidy, said spokesman Evan Zeppos, but the developers are seeking federal new markets tax credits for the project. The project would create 200 permanent jobs and 450 construction jobs, and would provide a $2.2 million annual tax revenue boost, Zeppos said.
However the project is facing some opposition because of plans to tear down the 100-plus-year-old buildings.
“They are asking to demolish five buildings on one block, that is one of the last full blocks of 19th century architecture in Milwaukee,” said Anne-Marie Opgenorth, executive director of Historic Milwaukee. “Do we want a built environment that’s anywhere USA, or do we want to have a built environment that is uniquely Milwaukee?”
The developers say the existing building have been altered dramatically over the years and lack historic or architectural significance. But Opgenorth said the buildings still have significant architectural elements that are more than 50 years old, which is the standard for historic status.
Any buildings that are more than 50 years old and are in a local historic district, including these buildings, are considered historic, she said.
The developers showed city officials a hotel development concept that would maintain and rebuild the original Wisconsin Avenue streetfront, but those plans were deemed inappropriate by Ald. Robert Bauman and a Historic Preservation Commission staff member, Zeppos said.
The Historic Preservation Commission on Monday scheduled a public hearing for the hotel project for Dec. 13. If the commission opposes the demolition of the buildings for the Marriott project it would take a supermajority of the Common Council to overrule the commission and allow the demolition.