Project to include apartments, retail
Journal Sentinel building owners file zoning papers
The building that houses the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is to be converted into 103 apartments and retail space after the newspaper moves to a different downtown location next year.
That’s based on information the building’s new owner has filed with the Milwaukee Board of Zoning Appeals.
JS 1924 LLC, an affiliate of J. Jeffers & Co., is seeking a special use permit for the project, known as Journal Square Lofts.
That permit would allow first-floor apartments and retail space at the Journal Sentinel’s main six-story building, 333 W. State St.
The special use permit is needed in part because the plans include five twostory units with first-floor entries. But most of the apartments, or possibly condos, throughout the six-story building’s upper floors would be accessed through Journal Square’s main firstfloor lobby.
The units with first-floor entries would be accessed from a vacated alley between the main State Street building and the former Milwaukee Sentinel building.
Journal Square Lofts apartments would range from studios to three-bedroom units, with just under half of the units having one bedroom.
The apartments would be tied in part to the increasing number of employees coming to the area around Fiserv Forum , according to plans filed with the zoning board.
That area includes the new Milwaukee Bucks practice facility and Froedtert
& Medical College of Wisconsin McKinley Health Center. Also, the Bucks’ owners plan to develop nearby vacant lots for office buildings, hotels and other new uses.
The Journal Square retail space, which would face North Phillips Avenue, doesn’t yet have a specific use or tenant.
Journal Square would include 169 basement parking spaces on two levels at that main building and its addition to the east, according to the permit application.
Plans haven’t yet been determined for the 3-acre block’s other properties, including an attached, four-story building that once housed the Milwaukee Sentinel, 918 N. Phillips Ave.
Executives of J. Jeffers & Co. couldn’t be immediately reached Monday for more information.
Journal Square would include firstfloor common amenity space, as well as a courtyard, according to the plans.
The permit application was filed on Friday, one day after J. Jeffers, led by
Joshua Jeffers, bought the property from Gannett Co. Inc., which operates the Journal Sentinel.
The Journal Sentinel will continue to occupy the building for the short term, leasing the property back from the new ownership group until late 2020, Jeffers said in announcing the purchase.
Jeffers said in that statement that renovations would likely begin in 2021, and that no definite redevelopment plans have been finalized.
The Journal Sentinel plans to move its roughly 260 employees in 2020 to the 330 Kilbourn office complex, 330 E. Kilbourn Ave.
The Journal Sentinel’s main Art Deco-style building was constructed in 1924 to house The Milwaukee Journal.
The attached four-story building, constructed in 1919, housed the Milwaukee Sentinel after it was purchased in 1962 by the Journal.
The Journal Sentinel buildings were designated as historic this year by the city Historic Preservation Commission. That means any exterior changes would need commission review.
That designation also makes it likely that financing for Journal Square Lofts would include state and federal historic preservation tax credits.