Owner must repair or raze Walker’s Point site
Order is likely intended to jumpstart development
A delayed plan to redevelop three Walker’s Point industrial buildings into high-end apartments is facing a new city order to either begin renovations within six months or raze the structures.
The unusual raze or repair order covers neighboring Milwaukee buildings at 300 S. Barclay St., 305 S. Barclay St. and 139 E. Oregon St.
Those buildings were sold in January 2017 for $500,000 to PPG GP LLC, an affiliate of Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates Inc.
Sherman plans to redevelop the buildings as a 115-unit apartment community, known as The Barclay. Those renovations were to begin last summer after Sherman was to secure its construction financing.
But that work hasn’t yet started. And, on Feb. 8, the Department of Neighborhood Services issued the raze or repair order.
Typically, the department issues orders to raze dilapidated buildings without the option of making repairs, said Kail Decker, an assistant city attorney.
But city officials would rather see the three buildings redeveloped instead of demolished, Decker said Tuesday.
The order was issued to ensure the buildings undergo the planned renovations with the proper environmental protections, Decker said. The buildings were used for several decades to make pigments.
Decker also said the order was based on a belief among city officials that the development plans should proceed “sooner rather than later.”
Sherman is proceeding with the project, said the firm’s attorney, Mike Maistelman.
The project has run into typical construction delays, he said, with harsh weather this fall and winter playing a role.
Sherman is creating a development schedule for city officials, Maistelman said.
The schedule should be done by next week, with Sherman expecting to begin the building renovations by late spring or early summer, he said.
The buildings, south of East Oregon Street on both sides of South Barclay Street, are part of the former Pittsburgh Plate Glass complex. A five-story building is east of South Barclay Street, with two connected three-story buildings on the street’s other side.