Milwaukee

From the Article:

A Milwaukee County-backed affordable housing project in Whitefish Bay is back on track after it was blocked by a village commission in January. On Tuesday, the Village’s Board of Appeals overturned an architectural review board decision.

Spoerl Development LLC is planning to build a three-story, 17-unit affordable apartment building, called The Hampton, at 4800-4818 N. Santa Monica Blvd. The site is located at the intersection of N. Santa Monica Boulevard and E. Hampton Road, near the border of Whitefish Bay and Shorewood. The intersection is considered one of the gateways to the village.

The project was designed to be in compliance with village zoning, and only needed approval for permitting. It went before the village Architectural Review Commission (ARC) twice, and during the second meeting, in December, the project was denied.

The denial proved controversial, as the Milwaukee County Housing Division had just awarded the project $3.2 million, with authorization from the county Board of Supervisors, to support the creation of affordable housing. “It just so happens that the same day this project went to the ARC that the county announced their grant for us, for an affordable housing development,” the developer Brian Spoerl, told Urban Milwaukee in January.

Expanding affordable housing, with a special attention to housing options in the suburbs, has been a policy priority of the county’s Housing Division under County Executive David Crowley.

According to a “Finding of Facts” produced by the commission, the project was rejected based upon a handful of considerations including concerns about local property values, parking; a subjective notion that one of the walls was “cold” and “not residential feeling”; and that it “still doesn’t feel like Whitefish Bay.”

From the Article:

Concordia University in suburban Milwaukee will likely cut staff in the face of “financial instability” according to a spokesperson for the university.

University President Erik Ankerberg sent an email to students and staff Feb. 13 saying the university’s campuses in Mequon and in Ann Arbor, Michigan must reduce costs to operate sustainably.

“Concordia University is taking these necessary steps to continue to fulfill its mission,” a statement from the university said.

According to the university, property, facilities and equipment on the campus in Michigan will likely be sold. The statement did not detail how many jobs would be cut.

Both universities are a part of the Concordia University System, a nationwide network of colleges and universities that are run independently but are all affiliated with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The two campuses merged in 2013 when Ann Arbor “could not obtain needed cash flow.”

Enrollment has grown on average over the last decade. The suburban Milwaukee campus enrolled 6,274 students during the 2022-23 school year, compared to 1,359 students in Ann Arbor. Since 2013, enrollment at the Michigan campus has more than doubled.

The announcement comes after university staff completed a financial review on Feb. 1. Concordia’s tax forms show the school has run a deficit in five of the last six years, ranging from $2 million to $6.3 million.

Benjamin Brenckle is a senior at Concordia University Wisconsin, studying music education. He said when he first heard the news, he was worried.

“I just kind of get concerned that because we don’t have as many people in the degree that we might lose the program or we might lose our staff,” Brenckle said.

Brenckle said his professors have assured him that the Wisconsin campus will not be hit as hard by cuts as the Michigan location.

The university has ambitious goals for its future. In a synopsis of the 2024-2028 strategic plan, the university aims to build enrollment to 8,500 students and increase donations to the university’s annual fund.

From the Article:

Wong’s Wok, a Chinese chain restaurant with roots in Milwaukee, has shuttered its final location. The closure marks the end of a 45-year run for the family-owned restaurant, which operated as many as 13 locations at its peak.

Since its inception in 1979, Wong’s Wok has operated as a fast food concept with a focus on traditional Cantonese recipes such as egg foo young, sweet-and-sour chicken and lo mein. The takeout-focused restaurant also served several varieties of fried rice, sesame chicken, crab rangoon and more.

The last remaining Wong’s Wok, 3702 S. 27th St., was open as recently as early January, according to online reviews. As of Monday, however, the building has been stripped of its signage. A note posted in the drive-thru window reads: “restaurant closed.”

The restaurant chain, originally founded by Edward Chin, has been passed down through multiple generations. Chin’s daughter, Jennifer Norvik, is the current business owner.

In addition to its brick-and-mortar locations, Wong’s Wok was a regular vendor at Summerfest. The restaurant served fried rice, sesame chicken, crab rangoon and other crowd-favorites throughout the annual festival. Summerfest has not yet announced a full list of vendors for the 2024 event.

The proprietor is now seeking a new tenant for the southside restaurant space. The standalone building shares a parking lot with a strip mall containing a number of businesses including Dollar Tree, an auto parts store and several others. The building is also home to a Chinese Buffet restaurant. A third Chinese restaurant, Panda Express, is located just north of the property.

From the Article:

Go deep into motorcycle culture with Mama Tried, a sprawling show of custom and collectible bikes named for a Merle Haggard song.

The weekend kicks off on Feb. 23 at Fiserv Forum with Flat Out Friday, the “world’s largest indoor flat track race” on a surface coated with Dr Pepper syrup. (It adds traction, like a sticky movie theater floor.)

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the homegrown show, which runs Feb. 24-25 at the Eagles Ballroom.

“People come into town from all over the world to spend the whole week doing motorcycle-related parties and stuff like that,” says co-founder Scott Johnson.

Pretty exciting to hear! The article particularly spotlighted Lapham Blvd, which saw incredible decreases in speeding.

Construction crane is coming down for 333 water. Feels tantalizingly close to completion

From the Article:

The City of Milwaukee celebrated the start of early voting for the spring election with the opening of a new voting center at the intersection of N. 60th St. and W. Capitol Dr.

The new location at 6001 W. Capitol Dr., replaces the early voting site at the Midtown Center Shopping Complex. City officials decided to move the site in 2023 after an Atlanta-based firm bought the building, tripling cost of the city’s lease and reducing the space offered for the voting site, as Urban Milwaukee reported.

Losing the Midtown site without a replacement would have been a blow to voting access for Milwaukee residents, particularly those living in the predominantly Black neighborhoods that surround the site.

And a blow to turnout in Milwaukee. “This is the busiest early voting center in the Midwest,” said Claire Woodall, director of the Milwaukee Election Commission.

The new site is located in two-story building that was originally a bank. It can be accessed by several bus routes, including Route 60, which runs north and south along 60th Street, and the RedLine, which runs east and west along Capitol Drive. The building is also ADA accessible and has parking for approximately 90 vehicles.

“We’re hoping that this site will be more convenient than our previous site,” Woodall said. The city is planning to be in the location at least through 2025.

From the Article:

Last winter, a Milwaukee police officer walked into Axel’s. Shouting over the dive bar’s thumping music, he told underage patrons to leave the bar immediately.

“This is your one chance,” he said, holding up a finger.

A few seconds later, more than three dozen patrons stood up and filed out of the building. The incident, which was captured on video and distributed across multiple social media platforms, was just one of several cases of underage drinking found at the tavern throughout the past several years.

The pattern captured the attention of the Licenses Committee, which on Jan. 23 recommended a 20-day suspension for the East Side tavern, 2859 N. Oakland Ave.

But just minutes before the full Common Council was to vote on the matter Tuesday, area Alderman Jonathan Brostoff recommended the committee change the suspension to a warning letter — the tavern’s fourth in five years — during a special committee meeting.

From the Article:

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) is only running roughly half of the battery electric buses (BEBs) it purchased for the new bus rapid transit (BRT) service.

After a recall of the buses in August by the manufacturer, NovaBus, the transit system is still only operating five of them daily, according to David Locher, enhanced transit manager for MCTS. Ideally, there would be nine running every day, he told the Milwaukee Common Council‘s Public Works Committee on Jan. 24.

The transit system ordered 11 BEBs from NovaBus, a Canadian subsidiary of Volvo Group, to operate on the Connect 1, a new nine-mile bus rapid transit service running east and west between Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa. The BRT service is the first of its kind for MCTS. The service cost $55 million to develop and employs dedicated bus lanes, elevated bus stations and transit technologies like off-bus fare collection and BEBs. Currently, however, the majority of buses operating on Connect 1 are clean-diesel buses like those being operated throughout the system.

MCTS also ordered 4 BEBs to operate on other fixed-bus routes as a pilot for a broader electrification of the fleet. Shortly after the Connect 1 launched, the company announced it was exiting the U.S. manufacturing market, with plans to close its manufacturing and delivery facility in Plattsburgh, New York by 2025.

So far, MCTS has received 11 BEBs from NovaBus. Delivery of the remaining four buses is expected this year.

On June 1, MCTS launched Connect 1. Before the month was over, the MCTS needed to replace a battery unit on one of the BEBs. On Aug. 24, all of the transit system’s BEBs were pulled from the road for a full recall and replacement of the batteries by NovaBus. During the recall, nine buses were sent away and all have returned with new batteries.

From the Article:

One of the Third Ward’s oldest buildings that last year was a prospect for potential demolition on Wednesday was donated to the nonprofit Milwaukee Preservation Alliance, which intends to preserve and restore it.

The donation resolves a preservation debate over the historic tavern at 266 E. Erie St., parts of which date to 1884. Milwaukee officials last year rejected General Capital Group and Joseph Property Development’s application to demolish the structure. The developers said its condition made a restoration financially impossible, and that it would essentially require a full reconstruction.

After the city of Milwaukee in September rejected the demolition application, members of the Milwaukee Preservation Alliance reached out to see if they could help, said executive director Emma Rudd. Those executive board members, including Peter Zanghi and Claude Krawczyk, worked primarily with Linda Gorens-Levey of General Capital, and reached the agreement for the developers to donate the building to the alliance to be preserved, Rudd said.

“It aligns perfectly with our mission,” she said. “At the end of the day, this is something we were willing to take on that not many would.”

The alliance is prepared to first stabilize the building, stopping further water leakage through its roof, and building scaffolding to brace an exterior brick wall that had been shifting. The long-term restoration will require fundraising and further planning, Rudd said, and will be an extensive effort. The funding for that work would include private donations and potential historic tax credits.

Beyond its deteriorating interior and roof, the building’s foundations will require extensive repair or replacement. An exterior wall will have to be taken apart and rebuild brick-by-brick, Rudd said.

“This is a beautiful, rich historic building that needs love from the ground up,” she said. “We want to use this building not only as an opportunity to promote our mission, but to use it for educational purposes, to see preservation as it happens."

A future use has not been identified for the restored building, Rudd said.

The building is notable because it is among fewer than 10 that survived the 1892 fire that wiped out much of the Third Ward. Its more recent history also includes housing the Wreck Room Saloon, a popular gathering space for the LGBTQ community.

It was most recently a Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design student union before a fire forced its closure in 2013. General Capital and Joseph Property acquired the building in 2014.

From the Article:

Last May, we reported that plans for the East Side food park in the former Zak's / Humboldt Gardens building at 2249 N. Humboldt Ave. (a.k.a. 1025 E. North Ave.) were officially approved by the Historical Preservation Committee. The approval marked the clearance of a significant hurdle for the project, which aims to restore an endangered historic building.

This morning saw yet another positive step forward for the highly anticipated development, which met with approval from the Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee. The committee's approval paves the way for the project to be officially presented to the Common Council for ratification.

From the Article:

The removal of Interstate 794 in downtown Milwaukee would increase daily traffic counts on Clybourn Street significantly, and state planners are exploring options to avoid logjams when its bridge over the river opens for boats.

Clybourn Street is currently a one-way street running in the shadow of Interstate 794’s elevated bridges. In early summer 2022, the Department of Transportation counted about 6,200 daily cars crossing its bridge over the Milwaukee River. Clybourn Street's total traffic counts are currently low, but could increase to about 26,000 cars daily under the most likely option to remove I-794 entirely, according to information the DOT released in August.

If I-794 is removed or redesigned, Clybourn Street would be rebuilt as a wider two-way boulevard to handle more traffic.

Those raising concerns about removing I-794 have argued Clybourn Street will experience car congestion when its bridge opens for boats on the river. The Clybourn Street bridge opens about 2,000 times a year for boats.

Wisconsin DOT planners discussed their efforts around the Clybourn Street bridge last week while updating a Milwaukee County Board committee on I-794. Mike Ernst, project manager on I-794 consulting firm HNTB Corp., said the project team assumes a new lift bridge would be built for Clybourn Street. Efforts are underway to minimize the number of times it would open for river traffic, he said.

“We are currently working on ideas for what we can do for that structure,” Ernst said.

That may mean rebuilding the bridge taller so it not need to open as frequently, said David Pittman, Wisconsin DOT project manager on the I-794 project.

The Milwaukee River is a federally regulated waterway, so it would require an act of Congress to remove the requirement for taller boats to pass, Pittman said.

The DOT had explored building a bridge tall enough to let all boats pass without needing to open and stop cars. However, a bridge that is tall enough, with inclines that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, may be so long that its structure blocks either Water Street east of the river, or Plankinton Avenue to the west, according to those preliminary studies from earlier this year.

Clybourn Street would see daily traffic increase to 26,000 cars under the DOT’s option of removing I-794 between Sixth Street and the northern terminus of the Hoan Bridge. According to last week’s presentation, that is the “most feasible” of the two options the DOT presented last summer to remove I-794 completely.

Several other options remain in play, and a final plan is to be selected later this year. Nine design concepts were shown last summer. State planners will narrow those down to four over the “next few months” for further public review, Ernst said.

The current range of options include rebuilding aging I-794 bridges with no design changes. That would maintain the current eight different access points to downtown.

Other options would redesign I-794, tearing it down and rebuilding it with a new, smaller system of elevated bridges. Those concepts would preserve about four access points to downtown, and open land downtown for public use or private redevelopment. It would not open as much land as removing the interstate bridges entirely.

The redesign concepts would also rebuild Clybourn Street as a wider, two-way boulevard to handle more traffic that now uses I-794. Cass Street would be extended south into the Third Ward to create a new local street connection.

From the Article:

Warehouse Art Museum, which bills itself as Milwaukee’s only private museum dedicated exclusively to the exhibition of modern and contemporary art, is planning to move into a new facility in 2025 in order to expand its exhibition space and hours of operation, providing greater public access to its collection.

Details about the new facility and opening plan will be unveiled later.

The museum temporarily closed its doors to the public in December after the conclusion of its fall exhibition, PAUSE/CONNECT. The museum will remain closed through 2024 as staff prepares to open the new facility.

During this temporary closure, Warehouse Art Museum plans to remain active, with plans for several events around Milwaukee in the coming months.

The move has been in the works for more than a year, Warehouse Art Museum Co-founder and Managing Director John Shannon said.

“We’ve now made a firm decision to do so,” Shannon said.

Warehouse Art Museum opened to the public in 2018 in a five-story concrete and brick warehouse at 1635 W. St. Paul Ave., in the Menomonee Valley. The museum’s international collection of more than 7,000 works includes significant concentrations of self-portraits, monotypes and contemporary studio craft. Since its launch, the museum has opened 14 unique exhibitions comprised of work from the permanent collection including Rediscovering Ruth Grotenrath and William Kentridge: See for Yourself.

The museum’s international collection reflects the personal vision its co-founders, Shannon and Jan Serr.

In its new location, WAM is planning to double its gallery space, providing visitors with both permanent and rotating exhibitions. In addition to the new space, WAM also plans to provide new research services for students and scholars to better explore the collection.

Programming at the museum has included four or five gallery exhibitions per year, often featuring guest curators, with concurrent artist talks, guest speakers and guided exhibition tours.

Warehouse Art Museum’s Plumb Press also maintains an active publication and video presence.

From the Article:

After a Thursday court ruling, the city can take ownership of the former Northridge Mall site, the Milwaukee Mayor’s Office confirmed.

This includes properties formerly owned by Black Spruce.

Northridge Mall has sat vacant for more than two decades, after closing in 2003. The former mall was located on the Far Northwest Side.

Several past attempts to redevelop the mall have not worked out. In recent years, it has been prone to fires and vandalism.

The mayor’s office said the city is planning next steps for the property when it comes to razing and restoring the site.

Officials said the first step would be to eliminate any danger the site poses. Demolition will start in the spring. The future of the site is still up in the air.

From the Article:

At the Urban Ecology Center‘s Riverside Park campus, the development of a new event venue is only the nucleus of a project that will also improve trail and parkland access on the grounds surrounding it.

The Urban Ecology Center (UEC) plans to redevelop a large Cream City brick warehouse at its Riverside Park headquarters, 1500 E. Park Pl., into a 300-person event space, as Urban Milwaukee previously reported. But the project will also involve constructing a new connection to the Oak Leaf Trail and accessible green space, including a new water feature.

The outdoor, recreational elements of the project are focused on a portion of the campus UEC staff call the East Gateway. It is a patch of undeveloped land between the Oak Leaf Trail and the future event space. All that stands there now is the husk of a former building.

“It’s a derelict three walls, right,” said Marcos Guevara, Director of Strategy & Operations for Community Engagement. “It isn’t even a full building.”

What’s left of the structure will be taken down, and 70 feet of trail will be constructed, connecting E. Park Place and the offshoot of Milwaukee County Parks‘ Oak Leaf Trail that lattices the forested area of Riverside Park.

“So because our mission is to connect people to nature and each other, opening up more ways for people to access a park is really exciting,” Guevera said.

From the Article:

Nearly 20 years ago, the Grohmann Museum at MSOE opened it doors to share art in all mediums that celebrated, explored or captured humans at work – from harvesting wheat to brewing beer to building railroads to forging steel and beyond.

Now, after dozens of exhibitions and an ever-growing collection of art inspired by industry, the Grohmann Museum hosts what just may be the perfect intersection of art and industry.

“Patterns of Meaning: The Art of Industry by Cory Bonnet,” which opens on Friday, Jan. 19 at the museum, 1000 N. Broadway, focuses on work by Pittsburgh artist Cory Bonnet, who not only draws inspiration from the steel industry, but uses remnants of that industry as his canvas.

Bonnet paints on material salvaged from moribund steel mills in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio – forms and patterns and rollers and all sorts of vintage, often-hulking objects. Bonnet's New Vision Studio collaborators use the objects to create glass artwork, ceramics, furniture and other artwork, too.

“I was a traditional oil painter,” says Bonnet, who studied animation in college while working in machine shops and waiting tables. After graduation, he worked in a specialty building supply company that specialized in wood and wood coatings. When his employer asked if he’d like to learn more about LEED sustainability, he jumped at the opportunity.

From the Article:

A judge who has been presiding over the Northridge Mall demolition order lawsuit since early 2022 again asked for more urgency from the city and the property's owner toward tearing down the vacant building.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge William Sosnay during a Wednesday hearing asked for the process to move “quickly, efficiently and effectively.” That was after city attorneys presented their strategy to take the property through tax foreclosure by the end of this month, and begin the process of demolishing it by this summer. Milwaukee officials announced that effort this month after receiving a $15 million grant from the state to pay for the mall’s demolition.

“It seems more things have transpired over the last three months than have occurred over the last 15 years,” Sosnay said.

Under an estimated timeline shown to aldermen this month, the mall’s demolition would be complete in fall 2025.

“You’re not on the same schedule I am,” Sosnay said Wednesday.

Sosnay in October 2022 upheld the city’s demolition order against Northridge, and since then has been pushing both the city and its private owner to prepare demolition plans for the building. The mall has been vacant for 20 years and has belonged to Chinese investor U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group Inc. since 2008.

An appeal by U.S. Black Spruce has stymied the effort to enforce the demolition order.

That could change as early as Jan. 25 when a different Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge could act upon the city’s request to take ownership of Northridge Mall through a tax foreclosure. The city filings tally $649,426 in unpaid property taxes from 2018 through 2021 on the U.S. Black Spruce properties.

U.S. Black Spruce attorney Christopher Kloth on Wednesday said he had “nothing to inform the court” regarding the company’s future plans. He is not involved in the appeal of the demolition order, or the foreclosure case.

The demolition would take more than a year to complete because of the utilities on the site, and the need to abate hazardous materials from the building structure, according to a Jan. 10 letter from assistant city attorney Theresa Montag to Sosnay. The city will create a website updating the public on those efforts, according to the letter.

By the end of the project, the city would have a cleared, graded site serving as a blank slate for a new use. The city of Milwaukee owns the vacant Boston Store building connected to Northridge Mall, and plans to start its demolition by early February.

According to Montag’s letter, U.S. Black Spruce has not put security measures in place at Northridge, and there is evidence of break-ins and guns being fired in the building. A report by city building inspectors for the week leading up to Dec. 24 said half of the property is not fenced, and that a contractor hired by the city is securing open entrances into the mall itself.

U.S. Black Spruce is tallying a $2,000 daily fine for not security the property under a 2022 order by Sosnay.

The city is prepared to secure the building “immediately” if it is given ownership to the property this month, according to Milwaukee assistant city attorney Michael Radavich.

From the Article:

Sinabro, which will bring a menu of Korean appetizers, sides and noodle dishes, is slated to open inside the Landmark Building at 316 N. Milwaukee St. The space, which was most recently home to Fool’s Errand and Fauntleroy, has been empty since July of 2022.

Behind the concept is Han Kim, an aspiring restaurateur who grew up working in his parents’ restaurants in Rhode Island. For a few years, he stepped away from the family business to attend business school and pursue a career in technology. But two years ago, he says, he decided to join his family here in Milwaukee.

His parents, Hae Jeong Kim and Jongsoo Kim, founded Kanpai Izakaya in 2016, and his family owns Char’d, the modern Korean restaurant in the Third Ward and Maru Korean Bistro on Prospect Avenue. His father is a co-owner and investor in Sinabro.

Kim, who is currently operating Char’d alongside his sister, Minjee Kim, says the concept for Sinabro was inspired by the gaps in the food scene that he noted when moved from the East Coast to Milwaukee.

“One of the first things that I noticed is that there really aren’t any great Korean noodle options here,” Kim notes. “Milwaukee is this great city, and I feel like Downtown is growing and heading in a great direction. But there’s also so much opportunity.”

From the Article:

The Milwaukee Metro area will soon have its very first location of Forage Kitchen, a Madison-based concept that aims to offer fresh, satisfying scratch-made fare in a quick, convenient format.

Last May, we tipped you off that the locally-owned grain bowl and salad restaurant would be coming to the former Great Clips at 103 E. Silver Spring Dr. in Whitefish Bay. Just seven months later, we have word that the new fast-casual eatery will be opening on Monday, Jan. 15.

Guests who are familiar with the Whitefish Bay location will find the former hair salon utterly transformed. The eatery is bright, airy and welcoming with clean modern lines and a bit of artistic flare thanks to a bespoke mural created by Milwaukee artist Bigshot Robot. Outside, guests can look forward to the addition of a sidewalk patio for al fresco dining in the spring of 2024.

The new location is part of an overall plan for growth of the Forage Kitchen brand, which has signed a lease for their second Milwaukee-area location in Pewaukee, which is expected to open in the spring of 2024.

"As we continue our growth in Madison, we felt the time was right to bring the flavors of Forage Kitchen to folks in and around Milwaukee looking for a fresh, healthy, and satisfying meal," says Henry Aschauer, founder and owner of Forage Kitchen and the eatery’s sister brand, Forage Kombucha.

From the Article:

Following nearly 30 years in business, Gary’s Pet Jungle (2857 S. Howell Ave., 414-744-3338) will soon be closing its doors once and for all. Opened by owner, operator, and namesake Gary Johnson, the pet and pet supply retailer has served animal lovers in the Bay View neighborhood and beyond since July of 1994. Sadly, the store’s days are numbered, as Johnson plans to end the business in the next few months.

We spoke with Johnson—who does not own the property where his business has existed for nearly three decades—at Gary’s Pet Jungle on Sunday afternoon. Though he declined our request to be interviewed, he confirmed that he intends to shutter the store in the near future. A closing date has not yet been determined, but Johnson tells us the end of his Pet Jungle could be as soon as the next month or two.