Milwaukee-based real estate development firm New Land Enterprises is revealing more details about the 25-story, high-end apartment tower it plans build on the city’s East Side.
Plans for the project – dubbed Renaissance Place – first surfaced in mid-January, but the developer is now providing more information about the would-be building slated to be constructed on a 0.6-acre parcel at the southeast corner of North Farwell Avenue and East Curtis Place.
The parcels currently serve as parking lots for the Mexican consulate at 1443 N. Prospect Ave. and the now-shuttered Renaissance Place event venue at 1451 N. Prospect Ave. Those buildings, which are currently owned by limited liability companies affiliated with Milwaukee investor Gary Taxman, would remain in place, under the development plan, New Land managing director Tim Gokhman has said.
According to new details released Wednesday, the building will house 310 apartments, including 195 one-bedroom units, 33 studio apartments, 49 two-bedroom units, and 33 two-bedroom units with dens.
The development is also slated to include a rooftop terrace and pool, with an indoor/outdoor club, fitness center, golf simulator, co-working space, pet grooming area, car washing station, and secure bicycle storage.
The structure would include seven-floors of parking with 440 heated, enclosed spaces, and 26 covered spaces.
New Land is working with a traffic engineer, according to the press announcement, to help ensure the project doesn’t create congestion issues on the already busy, one-way streets Farwell and Prospect avenues.
Korb + Associates Architects is designing the building, which will be made from concrete like many other high-rise apartments in the city.
The proposed building would be located less than two blocks from the 25-story Goll Mansion apartment tower planned for 1550 N. Prospect Avenue. A revamped design of that building recently won approval from the city’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development (ZND) Committee.
Gokhman said he started to pursue a project at the site soon after hearing about the closure of Renaissance Place in February of last year.
“The East Side hasn’t had a fully amenitized building (in decades), and there hasn’t been a building with a swimming pool on the East Side since the 1990s,” he said in January. “It is a wonderful site. You are by the lakefront, by The Hop, and by Brady Street.”
Under the development plan, the consulate’s lease at the smaller building, would continue, Gokhman said, but New Land would be looking for a partner to take on Renaissance Place as a reimagined events space or find some other complimentary use for the building. The Neoclassical/Beaux Arts building was constructed in 1907 as a home for the First Church of Christ Scientists, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. The consulate building next door was constructed by the church in 1950 to serve as a school. The congregation disbanded in the 1980s.
“At Renaissance Place, we propose to renovate the existing structure and attract an expert partner to program the space and transform it into a neighborhood asset, used more than just on the weekends,” Gokhman said in the Wednesday’s press statement.
The plan must still undergo reviews by officials at the city’s Department of City Development, as well as gain approval from committees and the Common Council, but a neighborhood meeting as been planned for 6 p.m. on Thursday at Renaissance Place, to allow neighborhood residents to get more information and weigh in on the project.
