A request by a pair of developers to demolish a former tavern in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward was rejected by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission on Monday, setting the stage for an appeal to the Common Council.
Fox Point-based General Capital Group owns the building at 266 E. Erie St. and is teaming up with Milwaukee-based Joseph Property Development to redevelop the site.
They say the building, constructed in 1884, has serious problems due to long-term settling and attempts to renovate it for new uses have run into feasibility issues.
But Tim Askin, a city historic preservation planner, said that the building isn’t in such dire shape and that it’s important to the neighborhood’s history, calling it “one of the most significant buildings in the Third Ward.”
The two-story building, originally a saloon and rooming house, is among the few buildings to survive the neighborhood’s 1892 fire.
It’s also one of the few buildings to represent the Third Ward’s history of Irish immigrants − as well as being tied to a 19th century woman entrepreneur and Milwaukee’s LGBTQ history, he said.
“There’s much more to learn from this building,” Askin said.
Most recently, the building served as the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design’s (MIAD) student union. A fire struck in January 2013, shuttering the building.
The developers purchased the building in 2014 for $800,000, and the building was given local historic protection in 2015.
“If it was so important why wasn’t it designated before 2015?” General Capital principal Linda Gorens-Levey asked.
The developers have discussed the idea of a new four-story office building on the lot, but haven’t detailed any of those plans. Gorens-Levey told commission members the development firms have also explored using the existing building as a restaurant and tavern, but those plans proved to be unfeasible.
Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project founder Don Schwamb sent a letter in support of the development team’s request and also spoke at the meeting. MIAD officials in attendance said the building was already deteriorating in the nearly two decades the school owned the property.
But after over an hour and a half of discussion, the commission sided with Askin’s report, voting 6-0 to deny the developer’s request with one commissioner abstaining.
The commission’s decision can be overruled by the Common Council, which commissioners indicated might be more sympathetic to the developer’s argument.
“This commission has not been set up to deal with financial implications,” said commissioner Sally Peltz.
