The Couture’s long-awaited groundbreaking is closer
The long-awaited groundbreaking for the Couture apartment tower is moving closer based on new building permit filings, and a property sale.
Portions of the streets next to the downtown Milwaukee development site, 909 E. Michigan St., would close starting May 3 to accommodate construction.
That’s according to building permit applications filed with the city Department of Neighborhood Services by Madison-based J.H. Findorff & Son Inc., the Couture’s general contractor.
The plans call for temporarily closing one lane each of Michigan Street, Clybourn Street and Lincoln Memorial Drive next to the 2.2-acre site.
Meanwhile, a portion of the site has been sold by The Couture LLC to a pair of subsidiaries, Couture Parking LLC and Transit Hub Mke LLC, for $1.65 million, according to a new deed recorded on Friday.
“In anticipation of closing on the financing, the developer is creating a condominium on the property and transferring ownership of each condo unit to the three development entities,” said Mary Schanning, the Department of City Development’s real estate compliance liaison officer.
Along with the condo units for the parking garage and transit concourse there will be a third unit for the 44-story, 322-unit tower, Schanning said Monday.
The division reflects separate financing for each portion of the project, she said.
A spokesman for Couture developer Barrett Lo Visionary Development LLC couldn’t be immediately reached Monday for more information about when construction is to begin.
Both the deed and the permit applications were filed after the Common Council on March 19 unanimously approved a revised development agreement with Barrett Lo.
That vote resolved an issue raised by City Attorney Tearman Spencer about the contract’s requirement that Barrett Lo provide $100,000 to the MKE United Anti-Displacement Fund. The private fund helps low-income homeowners who face big property tax increases.
After that vote, Barrett Lo co-owner Richard Barrett said his firm would “be able to move towards an early April (financial) closing and start of construction.”
The development agreement says construction must start by July 1, with substantial completion no later than 42 months after that work begins. That would be December 2024.
Barrett Lo plans to begin opening some apartments by around May 2023 and complete the entire project by August 2023.
The contract requires completion of the Couture’s street-level transportation concourse so The Hop streetcar’s lakefront loop can operate by June 30, 2022.
The transit concourse is needed to connect the lakefront loop’s parallel tracks on Michigan and Clybourn streets.
The $188 million project’s financing includes a $103.5 million loan from JLL Real Estate Capital guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; cash from investors, and $19.5 million in city funds, generated by the Couture’s property taxes, to pay for the transit concourse and other public improvements.