Proposal would add units to second phase of Milwaukee riverfront apartment plans

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Milwaukee officials discussed plans on Monday for the next phase of an apartment development on the riverfront, while developers asked for more units for their next building phase.

Atlantic Realty Partners, a developer from Atlanta, asked the Department of City Development to allow 15 units for a total of 222 units in two buildings proposed for 1801-1881 N. Water St., the agenda said.

The company built River House Apartments at 1785 N. Water St. in 2017 as part of a multi-phase project. The second phase of the project includes two U-shaped buildings with a public pedestrian connection to the Riverwalk, building plans showed. The city allowed up to 450 residential units in four buildings at 1775-1881 N. Water St., and 243 units already exist in the first phase.

Atlantic’s owners haven’t made a final decision to go forward with the next phase, but CEO Richard Aaronson said they were making “some small adjustments to the design which need city approval in the event we do move forward,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The two planned buildings would wrap around a courtyard and open to the river, a Milwaukee Plan Commission report showed. They would be around 46 feet high, four stories tall and avoid disrupting retaining walls along Water Street and use buttresses placed along the street.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources summarized the environmental condition of the site in 2015 and required the developer to install features to address all pathways where contaminants could affect groundwater and surface water, building plans showed.

Illinois-based HKM Architects + Planners drafted the layout and early renderings of the project.
The address used to be home to the Gallun tannery, which was torn down in 2011.