Greendale leaders approve plan for vacant former Boston Store
Apartments, commercial space coming to site
Elected leaders in Greendale have given a local developer the green light to transform the former Boston Store property at Southridge Mall into a fourstory, 790-unit apartment development.
The village board on Tuesday voted 5-1 to approve a draft redevelopment agreement between the village and Barrett Lo Visionary Development to construct the apartments and bring 50,000 to 60,000 square feet of commercial space to the nearly 15-acre property.
The plan calls for building the apartments over a three-phase period “extending well into the future,” said attorney Alan Marcuvitz of von Briesen & Roper, working as development counsel for the village.
Marcuvitz said the agreement isn’t in its final form, but the board’s vote approves the concept expressed in the document and authorizes village officials to execute the agreement when it’s completed.
“This is a moving target,” Marcuvitz said. “We were going back and forth on some matters (Tuesday) which still need to be squared away.”
The potential value of the development is pegged at more than $100 million, Marcuvitz said.
Nearly 800 units are planned
Rick Barrett, who operates Milwaukee-based Barrett Lo, said they’re in the initial stages of the concept, but currently are projecting 790 units with a mix of one, two and three bedrooms. The sizes are yet to be determined.
There would be four stories of residential space above parking, he said.
There will be underground parking. Whether there will be at-grade parking wasn’t immediately clear.
“We’re looking to create a mixedused, lifestyle center that’s upscale with a village green that becomes a center point of the residential, the new food and beverage, the new retail that would be added to the project,” Barrett said after the board’s vote.
A construction timeline has yet to be determined, he said.
Barrett Lo is best known for developing the Couture residential high-rise on Milwaukee’s lakefront.
The firm also has done suburban apartments developments, including the Emerald Row project at Oak Creek’s Drexel Town Square mixed-use site.
In May, the Greendale Village Board voted to buy the building and parking lot for $3.3 million with plans to make it available for new development.
The purchase was completed in July. The building has been vacant since Bon-Ton Stores Inc., the operator of Boston Store and other department store chains, was liquidated in 2018.