Milwaukee developer Josh Jeffers wants to add more floors to his proposed mixed-use building at the corner of North Broadway and East Clybourn Street.
An updated application submitted to the city of Milwaukee by J. Jeffers & Co. shows the Broadway Connection, to be built at 511 N. Broadway, will now be 11 stories tall. One additional floor will be used for parking, while the other floor will be for office space. When first proposed in the fall of 2017, it was planned to be only seven stories. It was then modified to be nine stories tall before this new proposal, according to a city staff report.
According to the report, the height of the building would only increase by 9 feet, up to 129 feet tall. This is done mainly by lowering floor-level heights. The floors used for parking were typically reduced from 10 feet to 9 feet, while the office floors were typically increased from 12 feet to a little more than 13 feet high.
Despite the changes to the building height and materials being used, the “design concept is substantially similar,” according to the report.
As for the rest of the building, the ground floor facing Clybourn will feature a full-width, two-story storefront with a separate storefront on Broadway. Roughly 60 percent of the first floor, 90 percent of the second floor and the entirety of the third through fifth floors will be used for indoor parking.
The modified development plans were considered Monday afternoon by the Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission, because the site sits on a block of historic buildings. Commission members unanimously approved the plans.
Jeffers told the commission that its approval was the only thing left before the project could move forward. He expects to break ground in April.
The project changes come about a month after the Husch Blackwell announced it will move its Milwaukee office to the new building. The law firm said it will occupy the top three floors.
The new location will give Husch Blackwell 71,000 square feet of space, about 75 percent of what the firm currently has at its offices at 555 E. Wells St. The firm and its predecessor (Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek) have been at the East Wells Street location since 2003.
