Couture tower waits for loan guarantee

Federal agency has been reviewing it since Jan.

The Couture apartment high-rise planned for downtown Milwaukee’s lakefront is ready to begin construction as soon as the developer obtains a loan guarantee from a federal agency.

That’s according to a report provided Monday to the County Board’s Economic and Community Development Committee by Teig WhaleySmith, county director of administrative services.

Barrett Lo Visionary Development LLC has completed its construction drawings for the 44-story Couture, and has obtained city construction permits, Whaley-Smith said. Madison-based J.H. Findorff & Son Inc. is the general contractor.

“The last big component” to complete before construction can start, he said, is the firm’s pending request for a loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Whaley-Smith said Barrett Lo will be meeting with HUD officials “to close on that transaction.”

Whaley-Smith didn’t provide additional information on when that would occur.

Rick Barrett, Barrett Lo co-owner, said he didn’t know when HUD would complete its review.

“It’s a very slow process,” he said in an interview.

A spokeswoman for HUD, which has been reviewing the loan guarantee request since early January, didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.

City Development Commission Rocky Marcoux said in April that construction is expected to begin by October.

The Couture is to be built at 909 E. Michigan St. The site once held a Milwaukee County Transit System facility that Barrett Lo demolished last year.

The Couture is to include 312 highend apartments, 52,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, and a transit concourse featuring the new downtown streetcar.

The lakefront loop from the main streetcar line to the Couture and back is under construction.

It would take about 30 months to complete the Couture. Barrett last spring had planned to begin construction by the end of 2017.