Milwaukee council OKs Couture contract
The Milwaukee Common Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a new contract requiring the developers of the stalled Couture apartment tower to personally guarantee a potential $1.4 million payment to the City of Milwaukee if a transit hub at the building’s base is not built by June 2022.
Mayor Tom Barrett, however, said in a memo to council members Tuesday that he did not plan to sign the legislation because of an element that requires the developers to provide $100,000 to the MKE United Anti-Displacement Fund. The legislation still becomes law without the mayor’s signature.
The Couture, which is to be located at 909 E. Michigan St. overlooking Lake Michigan, is to include a transit concourse for the streetcar, known as The Hop. It will connect the streetcar’s parallel tracks on Michigan and Clybourn streets.
Construction on the tower from developer Barrett Lo Visionary Development LLC has been repeatedly delayed.
The city has a July 31, 2022, deadline to spend grant money from the Federal Transit Administration for the lakefront streetcar loop, but $1.4 million of the $14.8 million grant remains unspent. That could mean the city would have to repay the remaining sum if it isn’t spent by the deadline.
Barrett Lo owners Richard Barrett and Tan Lo have agreed to personally guarantee the $1.4 million.
Ald. Robert Bauman told the council Tuesday that there is a risk that the city could have to refund the entire federal grant if the streetcar line is never completed.
But, he said, the commissioners of the departments of public works and city development determined that the risk is “fairly minimal.” If the building never gets off the ground, he said, the city has an easement on the land that allows the city to complete the streetcar line and it has the funding it needs to do so.
The city can meet the terms of the federal grant “one way or the other,” Bauman said.
“We can either do it in an elegant way by completing this building and having a fairly grand terminal integrated into a very high-quality building, or we can have a fairly bare-bones streetcar line running across an empty lot with a platform and shelter,” he said. “Either way, the streetcar line gets completed, which substantially meets
the terms of the ... grant.”
Bauman said “every indication” the city has received is that Barrett Lo is ready to proceed and break ground soon. That should allow the city to begin construction of the streetcar structure in late spring of 2022, with the streetcar opening for service that summer, Bauman said.
The proposal also requires Barrett and Lo to provide $100,000 to the MKE United Anti-Displacement Fund. The fund is focused on preventing displacement of residents from the Harambee, Halyard Park, Brewers Hill and Walker’s Point neighborhoods as property taxes have increased due to nearby development downtown.
In his memo to the council Tuesday, the mayor wrote that he supports the parts of the file moving the Couture development forward and appreciates the developer’s willingness to support the anti-displacement fund.
But, he wrote, it was unnecessary to tie passage of the legislation to the developer’s contribution, given the developer’s commitment to contribute to the fund.
The council also:
• Unanimously approved a measure extending the Active Streets for Businesses program until Nov. 15. It was previously set to expire on March 15.
• Unanimously approved a resolution urging Oshkosh Corp. to build “next generation” U.S. Postal Service vehicles at the Century City Business Park on the city’s north side. The measure follows a letter this week from nine Common Council members to Oshkosh Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer John Pfeifer pitching the business park as the site for the multibillion-dollar project.