Photos: Media takes tour of model units at The Couture

The Couture is ready for the runway.

Barrett Lo Visionary Development, along with construction firm Findorff and property manager Willow Bridge Property Company, gave the media a tour Wednesday of the new 46-story apartment tower nearing completion on downtown Milwaukee’s lakefront.

Apartments at The Couture range from 576-square-foot one-bedroom units to 2,350-square-foot three-bedroom units. All apartments feature designer finishes, including floor-to-ceiling windows and custom wood cabinetry.

The Couture’s direct lake and/or city views are the building’s primary selling point, according to BLVD chief executive officer Rick Barrett, but they weren’t visible due to heavy fog at the time of the media tour.

“This, in my mind, is a lake-dominated building,” Barrett said. “Light and lake air pours in, that makes it different.”

Initial interest in the building’s apartments has been strong since the units became available for lease earlier this month, Barrett said, calling the rate of showings “outrageous.”

Barrett told BizTimes on Tuesday that 30 or 40 apartments in the building, which has 322 units, have been reserved. The building’s most expensive unit, a three-bed, 2.5-bath penthouse unit that will rent at $11,650, has already been leased.

Floors four through 30 will begin welcoming residents in April, with about five floors on top of that opening every two months until the building is fully complete, which is expected to occur in July.

BLVD and Willow Bridge are anticipating it to take between 12 and 18 months for the building to reach full occupancy.

The Couture’s pricing goes down to $2,045 a month for the building’s smallest apartments, which have one bedroom, totaling 576 square feet and are facing west. The average rent in the building is around $3,400 a month, according to a BizTimes calculation.

A majority of the units, about 200 of them, are priced between $2,000 and $3,000 a month, with about 26 between $3,000 and $4,000, 68 between $4,000 and $5,000 and 21 between $8,000 and $9,000.

On a price per square foot basis, The Couture’s units will rent for an average of $3.90, according to preliminary research from commercial real estate analytics firm CoStar.

Barrett said the building’s range of price points makes it unique in the city, serving the highest end of the city’s luxury market, while providing a substantial amount of units to young professionals and other renters. Some of the building’s pricier units could also fill what Barrett called the “shadow condo market” in Milwaukee, as new condo projects have been extremely rare since the Great Recession.

Amenities in The Couture will include a fitness center, clubhouse, lounge, outdoor terrace and swimming pool, 24-hour concierge, business center, bike parking and storage, dog park, underground heated parking and electric vehicle charging stations in the building.

The Couture development also includes a transit station for The Hop streetcar and Milwaukee County Transit System bus rapid transit service, 42,837 square feet of retail space that spans three floors and a fourth-floor terrace park that will be open to the public.

Barrett said Wednesday that there are several restaurant operators interested in the building’s commercial space, though no tenants have been announced.

BLVD is working with Milwaukee-based Barchetta Real Estate Advisory to market the commercial space.

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