Third Ward stretch of city’s RiverWalk nears completion
It started with converting two vacant industrial buildings into condos, and another one into a brew pub — new uses that included patios and a public plaza along the Milwaukee River.
Twenty years later, the RiverWalk segment running through Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward is likely to be completed by year’s end — with that final piece featuring an urban park that extends over the river on a former railroad trestle.
The creation of Trestle Park, and the late summer completion of an adjacent RiverWalk tied to the new Domus apartments, will complete a mile-long continuous path along the river’s east bank in the Third Ward. “That’s amazing, isn’t it?” said Alyssa Remington, who oversees RiverWalk projects at the Department of City Development.
The entire RiverWalk, from the harbor to the North Ave. bridge, runs about 3 miles, and has helped boost riverfront property values by more than $520 million, according to a 2014 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report.
It includes gaps, especially north of downtown, which new apartments, offices and other developments continue to fill. But the larger RiverWalk system recently was named one of 25 finalists for the Urban Land Institute’s Global Awards for Excellence. Also, city officials are starting conceptual plans to extend the RiverWalk west to the Menomonee River.
Meanwhile, the completion of the RiverWalk’s Third Ward segment is a milestone, said Remington and others who have helped blaze that trail.
“It is momentous,” said Robert Monnat, chief operating officer at Mandel Group Inc., which has built several apartment buildings with RiverWalk pieces.
“Completion is particularly important in the Third Ward, where the RiverWalk is heavily patronized by residents,” he said. “It’s terrific,” said former Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist. The idea of creating a RiverWalk system emerged during the 1980s under the administration of Mayor Henry Maier, Norquist’s predecessor.
Norquist became a big RiverWalk supporter after being elected in 1988. In 1993, he proposed expanding the RiverWalk in the heart of downtown, with costs split between private land owners and the city.
And, in 1997, Norquist proposed extending the RiverWalk into the Third Ward with a half-mile section running downriver, ending near the N. Broadway bridge.
The neighborhood was drawing more interest from developers, which made the extension a logical move, Norquist said in a recent interview.
The Third Ward’s RiverWalk, designed by New York artist Mary Miss, differs from the downtown RiverWalk. Miss’ design called for using wood, not concrete, with the walkway going directly over the
20 years after segment was proposed, new park would finish it
river, instead of on its bank.
At the time of Norquist’s announcement, two neighborhood developments were proceeding with riverfront patios — marking the first time Third Ward buildings embraced the river as an asset.
One was Riverwalk Plaza, which in 1998 converted two neighboring industrial buildings, at 141 and 201 N. Water St., into 79 condos.
Also, an industrial building at 233 N. Water St. was converted into The Saddlery, with offices and the Milwaukee Ale House brewpub.
The Third Ward RiverWalk connected those developments and future neighborhood projects to customers drawn by the river, said Jim McCabe, who opened the Ale House in 1997.
“A lot of business flowed to us as the RiverWalk continued to evolve,” McCabe said.
RiverWalk Plaza, which included a riverfront public plaza at the end of E. Chicago St., sold all of its condos within 30 days, said developer Robert Lemke.
“And then everything just exploded after that,” he said.
Additional RiverWalk segments were added as new condos were completed in the Third Ward.
They included River Renaissance, Marine Terminal Lofts, Hansen’s Landing and Harbor Front, which opened from 2004 through 2008 during Mayor Tom Barrett’s tenure.
Also, a small RiverWalk piece along an E. Erie St. parking lot, between River Renaissance and the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, was built in 2012.
However, another condo building, planned for just downriver from Marine Terminal Lofts, was delayed for several years after the housing bubble burst in 2008.
Developer Mandel Group later converted the project to apartments, aimed at suburban empty nesters, as demand for downtown-area luxury rental units increased.
Mandel Group in early 2016 started construction on the six-story, 132-unit Domus apartment building, 441 E. Erie St. It will begin opening units on July 15, with its RiverWalk to be completed in August.
That leaves one last gap — to be filled by the proposed Trestle Park.
Trestle Park would use a city-owned vacant lot, at 501 E. Erie St., as well as the former railroad trestle that juts
“A lot of business flowed to us as the RiverWalk continued to evolve.”
JIM MCCABE, OPENED THE MILWAUKEE ALE HOUSE IN 1997
out over the Milwaukee River. It is just downriver from Domus, with the vacant lot now being used as a construction staging site.
The plan is to begin creating that park this fall, with a possible completion by year’s end, said Remington, of the Department of City Development.
Trestle Park would include a RiverWalk, benches, green space featuring native plants and the conversion of the former railroad trestle into public space. It would total around one-third of an acre.
The proposal was approved Wednesday by the Historic Third Ward Architectural Review Board. It also needs Plan Commission and Common Council approval.
City officials have planned to develop Trestle Park since buying the lot and trestle from Union Pacific Corp. in 2013.
That trestle once connected to a railroad swing bridge, which Union Pacific still owns but no longer uses.
Various ideas have been floated to develop the bridge, Remington said, but their backers have been unable to raise funds.
Union Pacific is still maintaining the bridge in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations, said Calli Hite, a corporate communications director for the Omaha-based railroad.
After Trestle Park opens, the RiverWalk in the Third Ward is done, Remington said.
“It’s nice to get to that point,” said Remington, who’s been overseeing RiverWalk projects for 10 years.
Meanwhile, the RiverWalk’s gaps upriver from downtown continue to be filled by such new projects as Walker’s Landing apartments, River House apartments, The North End mixed-use project and a new office building anchored by Bader Rutter & Associates Inc.
“Just think of it, you can essentially enter a RiverWalk/trail system at North Avenue, which was once literally the northern boundary of the city, and experience the urban landscape from the river grid versus the street grid,” said Monnat, of Mandel Group.