The Avenue offers shoppers yet another reason to keep coming downtown

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The Avenue is the centerpiece of what was once the Shops of Grand Avenue in downtown Milwaukee.

The former shopping mall has been turned into a professional office space within a vibrant mixed-use development. Amid all this, the ownership, design, and construction team behind the project have brought new life to an attraction in the heart of the city.

The three-level Grand Avenue west arcade had two lower floors of retail stores and a third-level food court, all connected by an expansive atrium. With its existing floor plates added on to to provide more room for office space on the upper levels, the upper-floor configuration basks in natural light at all levels with overviews from upper-level balconies.

The ground floor has the new 3rd Street Market Hall, where local vendors and retailers reflect Milwaukee’s diverse cultural influences, and chefs and small businesses show their expertise. Besides the culinary offerings, 3rd Street Market Hall holds space for amusements such as shuffleboard, bags, Topgolf and the Photoverse Selfie Museum, where ticketholders can pose before various artsy backdrops.

Additional components of the project include a reimagined entrance and exterior plaza, reconfigured building facades, and a new exterior tower sign at the terminus of Third St.

The Kubala Washatko Architects design team also helped apply for historic tax credits for the adaptive reuse of the adjacent Matthews Building, a historic landmark in downtown Milwaukee since 1893.