Apartments proposed for east side site
Four-story building near business district planned
A four-story apartment building is being proposed for a site near the Downer Avenue business district on Milwaukee’s east side.
The 55-unit building would be developed at 2618 N. Hackett Ave.
That site now includes a vacant lot as well as St. Mark Episcopal Church’s parish hall. That empty space north of the parish hall is where the apartments will be developed.
That parish hall is to be demolished and replaced by a smaller facility, better suited to St. Mark’s current membership count. It would be built as an addition to the church, which will remain.
That’s according to new plans filed with the city.
The apartments would range from studios to two-bedroom units, with underground parking, according to the plans. The developer is Michael DeMichele.
The plans would need approval from the Common Council. A Plan Commission review is likely to happen in August.
The church was built in 1911 and is considered part of the Downer Avenue Commercial Historic District.
But the parish hall, built as an addition in 1948, was not included in the city report that designated the historic district.
The proposed new parish hall “will take queues from the existing church without copying it and will consist of a basement, ground floor and a partial second floor with a roof terrace,” according to the proposal.
The church needs to sell part of its site for the apartment development in order to “facilitate the proposed addition to St. Mark’s,” the proposal said.
The proposal comes as work is nearing completion on four nearby townhomes at 2604 E. Park Place, at the corner of Park Place and Downer Avenue.
Those townhomes are being developed by Seattle-based Bridge33 Capital LLC.
That firm recently converted former second-floor office space above Optix on Downer and the long-vacant former Chancery restaurant into 13 apartments at 2577 N. Downer Ave.