Development: Boston Store plan advances.

Plan would also help redevelop theater, fund street work

A city financing package with $1.9 million to help renovate downtown’s Boston Store building, in return for keeping open the department store and its corporate offices, was approved Thursday by the Redevelopment Authority.

The financing plan also includes a $750,000 grant to help redevelop the empty Warner Grand Theatre into the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s new performance hall, as well as $5.1 million for nearby street repairs and other public improvements.

The funding proposal needs Common Council approval.

The Boston Store and symphony hall projects are part of a revival for the area centered on W. Wisconsin Ave., said Dan Casanova, senior economic development specialist for the Redevelopment Authority.

“We think there’s a lot of excitement on W. Wisconsin Ave.,” he told authority board members.

They include plans by the Shops of Grand Avenue’s owners to redevelop the mall, which the separately owned Boston Store helps anchor.

The city would provide up to $1.9 million to help finance $4 million in renovations at the Boston Store building, which is owned by Wispark LLC, WEC Energy Group Inc.’s development subsidiary.

The store uses the building’s first two floors, with department store operator Bon-Ton Stores Inc.’s corporate offices on the upper levels.

Some of that store space would be converted into additional Bonton offices, with the upper floor offices also renovated, Casanova said.

The city would provide those funds through annual $190,000 payments if Bon-Ton keeps 750 employees at the Boston Store building through at least January 2028.

If Bon-Ton falls below that jobs mark, those annual payments would be smaller.

Meanwhile, the $750,000 grant would help cover the expense of moving a wall at the former Warner Grand Theatre, 212 W. Wisconsin Ave., so its stage can be expanded to accommodate the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

That would include expanding the building into N. 2nd St., which would be narrowed to two lanes between W. Wisconsin Ave. and W. Wells St., Casanova said.

That block now has three traffic lanes, as well as parking lanes.

The symphony has raised more than half of its $120 million fundraising goal.

That would provide $75 million to $80 million for the concert hall renovations, $20 million for the symphony’s endowment, and additional funds to retire a pension liability and meet other expenses.

The orchestra wants to move to the new hall from the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts so it can have better performance dates and the ability to rent out space to other groups.

The symphony hopes to raise enough funds to begin construction this fall and open the new performance hall by fall 2019.

The financing package’s $5.1 million in street work and other public improvements would include $2.5 million to rebuild N. 2nd St., between W. Wisconsin Ave. and N. Plankinton Ave.

That work includes relocating underground utilities so the theater can be extended into part of the street.

The city cash for the Boston Store building renovations, theater redevelopment and street projects would come from property taxes generated by the Boston Store building, which includes luxury apartments on its top floors; the Grand Avenue mall; the Courtyard by Marriott hotel attached to the mall; and the building attached to the mall’s eastern end that includes offices, Planet Fitness and a Marriott Residence Inn.

Those property taxes provide around $2.4 million annually through a tax incremental financing district that is set to end this year.

The new financing plan proposed by the city would delay those property taxes from going to the city’s general fund, Milwaukee Public Schools and other local governments until 2020, according to the Department of City Development.