Developer proposes 55-unit apartment building in Milwaukee, but will have to change original Art Deco building

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A developer has proposed a five-story, 55-unit apartment building for Milwaukee’s south side to replace an 85-year-old Art-Deco style building.

Zuwena Cotton, owner of BBE Investments & Developments, wants to replace the current building at 1101-1113 Historic Mitchell St. with an apartment complex, an application to the Historic Preservation Commission showed.

The 22,669-square-foot complex will have over 18,000 square feet of commercial space for services with high-frequency repeat customers, a dance studio with rentable space and co-working space. Cotton, the property owner, named the apartments The Encore and said the architecture will be “a combination of Art Deco and modern chic.”

In a letter to the commission, Cotton said the building “will bring an encore to the once thriving commercial district that was known as the ‘second downtown’ of Milwaukee.”

A public hearing for the proposal will be held at City Hall on Dec. 5, a letter from the city clerk showed.

The current building was built in 1937, Wisconsin Historical Society records showed. The building is home to a beauty supply store and the site of the former Holzman Furs, which closed in 2020.