City may pay for sewer at Couture

Moving line would cost $2 million

The City of Milwaukee would spend $2 million to move and rebuild a sewer line at the site of the planned Couture apartment highrise, under a new proposal.

Those funds would be repaid through the $122 million Couture’s property taxes, according to a notice of the proposal posted Thursday.

The proposal requires Common Council and mayoral approval. It is scheduled for its initial public hearing at the May 4 Redevelopment Authority board meeting.

Barrett Lo Visionary Development LLC is developing the 44-story Couture at 909 E. Michigan St.

The Plan Commission and Common Council recently approved revised detailed plans for the building. It would have 312 apartments, commercial space and a transit concourse that includes the new downtown streetcar.

Barrett Lo earlier this year demolished a former county bus facility at the project site. But a sewer line at the property’s western edge has been a complicating factor in the upcoming site preparation work.

Barrett Lo had studied the idea of adding a protective resin to the underground sewer to protect it from possible damage when site excavation work begins.

However, Barrett Lo and officials from the city Department of Public Works together concluded the sewer should be relocated and rebuilt.

The city typically doesn’t pay for sewer relocations, said Jeff Fleming, Department of City Development spokesman.

But, in this case, neither city officials nor Barrett Lo realized the sewer crossed the site because the city failed to publicly record an easement for the line, Fleming said.

The relocation work would likely begin in late summer or early fall to avoid disrupting traffic tied to Summerfest and other events at nearby Maier Festival Park, said Rick Barrett, Barrett Lo owner.

The firm plans to do

other site preparation work before beginning construction on Dec. 4, Barrett said. It would take about 30 months to complete the project, he said.

Barrett plans to finance the project with a loan to be guaranteed by an insurance plan operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

That program provides loan guarantees in return for fees from developers. It allows developers to obtain loans that are repaid over 40 years, which makes the periodic payments lower.

Barrett used a similar HUD guarantee to obtain

the main construction loan that financed the Moderne, a 30-story apartment and condominium high-rise that opened in 2012 at 1141 N. Old World Third St.

The Common Council and Mayor Tom Barrett in 2015 approved plans to spend $17.5 million for the Couture’s public improvements, including the transit concourse. Those city funds will be repaid from property tax revenue generated by the high-rise and other downtown developments.

Tom Daykin can be reached at tdaykin@jrn.com