Gold Under Park East Spur

Land, according to the old saw, is always in demand because they're not making any more of it. Except when they are, as Milwaukee is demonstrating.

The demolition of the Park East Freeway - a remnant of an ill-conceived plan to build a freeway loop around downtown - will create 26 acres of premium real estate. The land beneath and adjacent to the elevated freeway stub is part of a larger, 60-acre redevelopment plan that the city, county and downtown business interests unveiled last week. It's already receiving well-deserved kudos. As envisioned, the land would generate at least $250 million in housing, office and retail development along downtown's northern edge and dovetail neatly with the existing boom in new housing nearby.

If all goes well, the economic windfall from the Park East redevelopment will include new jobs and the addition of hundreds of millions of badly needed dollars to the city's and county's tax bases; the county owns the land under the Park East. And thanks to creative planning by, among others, the Department of City Development and city Planning Director Peter Park, the result ought to be functional and appealing - an array of attractive, mixed-use buildings that complement one another and the streets around them.

The unusual idea of reclaiming a freeway has begun to attract attention outside Wisconsin. Last month, for example, a reporter for The Kansas City Star described the project as a "multimillion-dollar sign that Milwaukee is serious about creating a new sense of its downtown." Along with a "photogenic addition to its Art Museum and a dressed-up, accessible riverfront, Milwaukee is presenting itself as a can-do place, proud of what it is and has."

The plan would split the 60 acres into three districts, each pegged for certain types of development. Although the idea is to create a more user-friendly, pedestrian-oriented cityscape - which would include an extended RiverWalk - transportation is clearly not being ignored. Streets in the area will be expanded; W. McKinley Ave. will be rebuilt as a boulevard; and a bridge will be constructed over the Milwaukee River to connect W. McKinley with E. Knapp St.

Unfortunately, Harley-Davidson Inc.'s recent announcement that it will not build a museum in the former Schlitz brew house has dampened some of the enthusiasm for the overall redevelopment project and caused some folks to second-guess the decision to tear down the freeway. But plans to raze the Park East predated Harley's proposal to build a museum in the brew house, located in the freeway corridor. What's more, Harley is still looking for another downtown location for its museum, including other sites in Schlitz Park.

But as Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist rightly points out, even if the museum is never built in the corridor, the Park East's redevelopment will still be an urban success story if it comes off as planned. And there's absolutely no reason to think it won't, since developers are already keenly interested.

One of the best features about the development is that the city and county are not going to micromanage it and impose government-issue ideas on developers, according to Norquist. Instead, the idea is to work with developers to ensure that construction meets certain standards and overall planning goals. After that, it's up to the developers to do their creative thing.

A version of this story appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 20, 2002.