C.G. Schmidt, JCP Construction start work on ThriveOn King’s residential leg

Milwaukee-based Royal Capital Group in late April broke ground for the residential portion of its $150 million ThriveOn King development. The project will turn a former Gimbel & Schuster’s department store into mixed-income housing, office spaces and community services.

The project at 2153 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is more than 450,000 square feet and is split into commercial and residential phases. In June 2022, C.G. Schmidt and JCP Construction broke ground on the office segment and completed the phase in April 2024. The contractors will deliver 90 apartments and officials estimated the project will be completed in December.

Royal Capital partnered with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the Medical College of Wisconsin to support the surrounding area. Both organizations will have offices in the building, along with Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin, Jobswork MKE and Malaika Early Learning Center.

The developer completed a 28,000-square-foot office space in the fourth story of ThriveOn King, a social media post showed. The Greater Milwaukee Foundation will use half the space with around 70 employees and the other half will be used as a large, high-tech gathering space for community organizations.

Project partners include Pierce Engineers, Engberg Anderson Architects and Kahler Slater.