Full County Board to take up high-rise proposal Thursday
MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele wanted the County Board to give his office permission to negotiate with the Barrett Visionary Development group on a $125 million, 44-story high-rise hotel and apartment/retail complex on the spot where the Downtown Transit Center now stands. The County Board, however, wanted to slow things down and discuss the proposed plan.
On Monday, July 23rd, the County Board's Economic and Community Development Committee went into closed session to discuss the Barrett project and other proposed projects for the site.
They came into open session talking about only one: the Barrett project -- or "The Couture."
County Board Chair Marina Dimitrijevic introduced a resolution on how negotiations should proceed.
"The County Board is taking a leadership role. We're in the driver's seat. We're giving perimeters to negotiations," Dimitrijevic said.
The resolution was approved and is expected to get the nod from the full board Thursday, July 26th.
The resolution calls for:
"Regardless of what the DNR says under pressure from their boss in Madison, there is precedent that this is fill-in lake bed land and commercial, private commercial development cannot take place on such land," John Lunz, president of Preserve Our Parks said.
Rick Barrett, who is the owner of Barrett Visionary Development -- the group that wants this project, says that there is no lake bed on the development site.
"We've been looking at the 2011 DNR report, which obviously indicates there is no lake bed on this site. We've been working off that premise, so this new information is also new to us," Barrett said.
The proposal will go next to the full County Board on Thursday.
"The Couture" development would contain 180 apartments and 180 hotel rooms with 775 parking spaces.
Barrett says if there are no major hurdles in the negotiating process, they could break ground in 10 to 16 months.
Abele issued a statement saying he's happy members of the County Board agree with what he's been saying for weeks -- that there is no reason to delay the process.
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