The development group led by Pat Connaughton is laying plans for a second development project in the city of Milwaukee — this time for a two-story building in the Brady Street Historic District.
According to an application filed with the Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission, the new mixed-use building would be constructed on a vacant lot at 1697 N. Marshall St., which is at the southwest corner of East Brady and North Marshall streets.
The applicant is Beach House LLC, a New York-based development firm of which the Milwaukee Bucks shooting guard is the president.
According to the application, the proposed new building will contain 1,940 square feet of first-floor retail space and a residential unit on the second floor. It will also contain an indoor parking space and about two outdoor spaces.
The second-floor residential dwelling will have two bedrooms, foyer and covered porch, according to proposed floor plans.
“We feel the location is very unique given it being a corner lot right in the heart of the Brady St. Historic District,” Joe Stanton, Beach House director of project management, said in an email.
He said Beach House hopes to begin construction by February or March, and finish up the project by late fall. The building doesn’t yet have a retail tenant, but the developer will begin marketing the space once it closes on the property and completes final designs, he added.
The application is for the issuance of a certificate of appropriateness, which would allow the project to move forward. Approval is needed due to the project being located in a historic district, said Tim Askin, Historic Preservation Commission senior planner.
The request will be considered by the Historic Preservation Commission. And since the lot is owned by the city, the land sale will need Common Council approval, Askin noted.
Beach House is also planning to construct a four-story apartment complex less than a mile from this project, at the southeast corner of East Knapp and North Milwaukee streets. That project is on hold as city officials contemplate the historic significance of an existing duplex at the site.
The project calls for demolishing an existing duplex and in its place constructing a three-unit, nearly 7,000-square-foot apartment building. Connaughton plans to live in one of those units.
However, historic preservation advocate Dawn McCarthy filed a request to designate that duplex as historic. McCarthy is immediate past president of the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance. Although she did not file the request on the group’s behalf, it has since backed the proposal.
The project seemingly got the green light to move forward in November after the Historic Preservation Commission voted against the historic-preservation request. That decision is being appealed, and is headed to the Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Stanton said Beach House isn’t working on any other projects in Milwaukee “as of yet,” but is actively looking at other sites throughout the city.
