Tall & Urban News

Work is progressing on a 15-story, 168-unit apartment tower at the Wauwatosa campus of St. Camillus Health System Inc.

That tower, in the 10100 block of West Blue Mound Road and across the street from the Milwaukee County Zoo, is to be finished in spring 2022.

Known as the East Residence expansion, it will provide high-end apartments for seniors who can live independently.

The tower will include such amenities as a fine dining restaurant, pub and deli, as well as an art gallery, theater and wellness center, according to St. Camillus, a nonprofit corporation.

Other recent improvements at the St. Camillus housing community include a 72-unit assisted living facility.

Construction started about a year ago. The high-rise project won approval from the Wauwatosa Common Council in April 2018. That approval came on a series of 9-3 and 10-2 votes. Those occurred after St. Camillus reduced the building’s proposed height twice—from 21 stories to 18 stories, and then to 15 stories.

Many nearby residents still strongly oppose the project, saying the tower was too large for their neighborhood.

A similar debate is now occurring in connection with developer John Vassallo’s proposed 25-story, 354-unit luxury apartment tower at the southwest corner of West Blue Mound and Mayfair roads — less than 1 mile west of the St. Camillus project.

The city Plan Commission in November voted 6-0 to recommend against granting a zoning variance that would allow the tower to be built. The Common Council has the final say on that issue, with the Community Affairs Committee to consider the project 12 January 2020 and a full council vote tentatively scheduled for 19 January 2020.

Nearby residents say the high-rise would exacerbate traffic congestion, cast shadows on nearby homes and not complement a neighborhood made up largely of single-family houses.

Vassallo, who operates Mo’s Irish Pub just across the street from the proposed project site, said he needs a large number of apartments to finance the tower’s amenities.

He says the US$50 million project would create property tax revenue for the city and its school district, as well as hundreds of construction jobs.

Vassallo also says a traffic impact study shows that increased trips by building residents can be handled by its location at two multi-lane streets just a few blocks north of I-94.

But opponents questioned the validity of a study that measured traffic counts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more on this story, go to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.