With Funds Secured, Construction Begins on Milwaukee Lakefront Development

The Couture’s site once housed Milwaukee’s Downtown Transit Center, and sits on the shore of Lake Michigan. Image Credit: Barrett Visionary Development

07 May 2021 | Milwaukee, United States

A 44-story tower on the shore of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee is ready to begin construction now that funding has been secured. Barrett Lo Visionary Development and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) closed on insuring a US$104.7 million loan for the Couture on Friday, April 30.

The US$188 million tower will alter the Milwaukee skyline and add plazas, parks, pedestrian bridges, a Hop streetcar stop and Milwaukee County Transit System bus rapid transit depot to lakefront. The tower will include 322 residential units and 3,980 square meters (42,837 square feet) of retail space. It will stand 158 meters (516 feet, 10 inches). The neighboring U.S. Bank building is 183 meters (601 feet) tall and the Northwestern Mutual tower is 168 meters (550 feet) tall.

Featured Buildings

Couture

Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons

U.S. Bank Center

Other Referenced Buildings

Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons

U.S. Bank Center

CTBUH Member Companies
(showing member level)

Thornton Tomasetti

The site once housed the Downtown Transit Center, and the project has been hampered by a variety of issues, including the discovery of an unmapped sewer discovered beneath the site.

According to Barret Lo, the FHA loan is the largest that HUD has ever given in Wisconsin and the largest loan in the HUD’s Midwest region in more than 20 years.

Construction is expected restart as of the first week of May, 2021. Some work, including demolition of the transit center, reconstruction of a shared wall with 833 East, sewer design and engineering and soils evaluation, has already been completed.

“Vertical” construction is expected to kick off by early next year and wrap up by autumn 2023.

For more on this story, go to OnMilwaukee.