Northwestern shifts plans away from O’Donnell Park

Hours after Milwaukee County officials voted Thursday against selling O’Donnell Park to Northwestern Mutual, the company announced plans to build parking spaces and a residential and retail development to the west of its downtown Milwaukee property.

The company announced its decision in a news release Thursday, several hours after the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted 9-8 against selling the O’Donnell Park parking structure and related land to Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. The company had proposed buying O’Donnell Park for $14 million and keeping the site open to the public.

Despite the assurances, some Milwaukee County officials said they were uncomfortable. They argued that the legal protections attached to the proposed deal were not strong enough to ensure the land would be preserved for a public purpose.

In response to the board’s rejection of the purchase Thursday, Northwestern Mutual issued a news release announcing plans build 1,000 parking spaces, as well as a residential and retail development, on property the company owns in the block bounded by North Van Buren, North Jackson, East Mason and East Wells streets. The company also owns the block around a building at the southwest corner of Van Buren Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

Northwestern Mutual, according to the release, has no specific plans concerning the size, cost, location or design of the proposed development. Company executives were trying to buy the O’Donnell Park site as part of plans to put up a $450 million, 32-story story tower directly to the east of its current headquarters building on Wisconsin Avenue.

The sale of O’Donnell Park to Northwestern Mutual was supported by Building Advantage Wisconsin, a group that promotes union construction. Northwestern Mutual had announced plans to make about $6 million worth of repairs to the O’Donnell Park site and Building Advantage representatives were eager to give their members an opportunity to get that work.