A 124-year-old Walker’s Point building, which was going to become the second Global Water Center building, until those plans were cancelled, will instead be converted into apartments.
The city’s Department of Neighborhood Services has issued a building permit for 35 apartments for the five-story, 46,600square-foot building at 326 W. Florida St.
HVAC and plumbing work have already been started in the historic, 124-year-old building, according to city documents filed with building owner Pieper Properties Inc.
Ann Pieper Eisenbrown, the owner and president of Pieper Properties, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Continuum Architects + Planners is the architectural firm working on the project. Representatives for the firm could not be reached for comment.
The building was at one time owned by the Pabst family and occupied by The Heinn Company, now known as Heinn Chapman, which is today located at 5431 N. 27th St. in Milwaukee.
In 2017, the Water Council pulled back plans to expand to the warehouse at 326-332 W. Florida St. to create Global Water Center II. A development group including The Water Council and HKS Holdings LLC, a Milwaukee-based real estate development firm, had planned the renovation but made the decision to drop the project after not finding enough tenants in need of larger amounts of space.
The apartment project will join two other nearby apartment projects currently under construction.
Linden Street Partners, which has offices in Pittsburgh and Santa Ana, California, is working on a $16.5 million project, to be called The Yards, at southwest corner of South 2nd Street and West Oregon Street. The Yards will include 87 one- and two-bedroom apartments and approximately 2,000 square feet of ground-level retail space.
Linden Street is also currently building The Quin MKE, at the northeast corner of Florida Street and South 2nd Street, a five-story mixed use project that includes ground-floor retail and 70 apartments.
