Wangard drops plans for Park East development

A development firm has dropped its plans to build apartments and retail space in Milwaukee’s Park East strip, and the parcel soon will be listed for sale.

Wangard Partners Inc.’s option to purchase the site from Milwaukee County has lapsed, said Aaron Herztberg, Milwaukee County economic development director.

The county within a few weeks plans to request development proposals for the 2.1-acre site.

The vacant lot is bordered by North Water Street, North Broadway, North Milwaukee Street, East Lyon Street and East Ogden Avenue.

Wangard Partners held the option for two years before it expired, Hertzberg said.

“We felt it was time to return to the marketplace,” he said Tuesday. “A lot has been happening.” Stewart Wangard, Wangard Partners chair and chief executive officer, confirmed that his company had dropped its plans for the site.

Wangard Partners in December 2015 disclosed plans to develop a sevenstory building on the vacant lot.

The firm’s conceptual proposal called for a $47 million development, with 250 apartments and 70,000 square feet of stores, restaurants and other retail space.

It would have been developed just west of the firm’s Avenir mixed-use development.

Avenir’s first phase, with 104 apartments and 7,000 square feet of commercial space, opened at 1437 N. Jefferson St., in 2014.

Wangard Partners last year completed another nearby project: the $31 million redevelopment of the former Laacke & Joys building, 1433 N. Water St., into a 113,800square-foot multi-tenant office building anchored by Bader Rutter & Associates.

But the firm’s plans to build two more phases at the Avenir haven’t proceeded.

Meanwhile, Wangard Partners has other nearby planned developments, including a proposed four-story, 94-unit condominium building at North Water and East Brady streets.