New Life on the River

When Land & Space predicted in February that the Park East Freeway corridor would be the next hot area for commercial development, we cited a couple of small but interesting projects that were in the works.

Now comes developer Barry Mandel, with plans to spend $75 million to $90 million - yes, those eye-popping numbers are correct - to create nearly 500 apartments and condominiums in that area.

Mandel's development, including some retail space, will sit on 7.5 acres now occupied by the former Pfister & Vogel tannery. The site, in the 1500 and 1600 blocks of N. Water St., overlooks the Milwaukee River and is just north of the soon-to-be-demolished Park East.


The underused freeway's demolition is to begin in May and be completed by 2004, making more than 20 acres available for residential, office and retail development. Most of those developable sites are parking lots beneath or near the Park East, which will be removed between N. 6th and N. Jefferson streets.

Catalyst for development
Mandel says his project will help spur development on the nearby Park East corridor, which city officials estimate will see future residential, office and retail developments valued at more than $100 million.

Mandel's project alone will nearly match that amount.

"This is going to be in the center of all things," says Mandel, president of Mandel Group Inc.

Mandel Group bought the property last October from U.S. Leather Inc. for $3.4 million. The site became available after U.S. Leather entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed the Pfister & Vogel complex and other Milwaukee operations, putting 525 employees out of work.

Construction of the development's first phase will likely begin within 12 to 18 months, once the tannery buildings are demolished and an environmental cleanup of the site is completed, Mandel says.

Mandel Group is receiving a $900,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce to help pay for cleanup costs.

Once construction begins, the first phase will likely take about 16 months to complete, Mandel says. So it will likely be sometime in late 2004 or early 2005 when that $38 million portion, with 250 apartments and 50 condos, is finished.

The ultimate plan is to develop 400 apartments and 75 condos, along with an unspecified portion of neighborhood retail space, Mandel says. The total investment during the five to seven years of development would be $75 million to $90 million, he says.

Bullish on downtown
Mandel, like other developers, is bullish on housing prospects in and around downtown. He notes that the Pfister & Vogel site is close to downtown offices and attractions, and overlooks the river - a key selling point for many urban dwellers.

It's not like Mandel hasn't done this before. An experienced developer of urban housing, his projects include Trostel Square, with 99 apartments and 27 condos just across the river from the Pfister & Vogel site.

Trostel Square, which has already sold 16 of those condos, is being built on the former Albert Trostel & Sons Co. tannery site. The 5-acre site is along the river's west bank, north of Schlitz Park, in the 1700 and 1800 blocks of N. Commerce St.

In addition, Mandel Group plans to begin construction by this fall on the River Crest condominiums. That 65-unit condo project is planned for a bluff-top site overlooking the river, southeast of the Jewel-Osco store at 1100 E. Garfield Ave.

Mandel's plans for the former Pfister & Vogel site are exciting, and show how attractive the Park East area is for development, Mayor John O. Norquist says.

"This will fit right into it," Norquist says.

Mandel's project joins two smaller projects that are planned for the Park East area.

A 93,750-square-foot industrial building at 1301-1325 N. King Drive sold recently for $2.15 million to James L. Wiechmann and an investors group affiliated with New Land Enterprises LLP. Wiechmann and his partners from New Land - Boris Gokhman and Walter Shuk - plan to eventually develop condominiums on the building's upper floors.

Also, a former Car-X automobile service center on a 15,150-square-foot lot, 1141 N. Old World Third St., sold for $600,000 to Garot Hospitality Inc., a hotel developer based in De Pere. That building is being razed to make room for a new mid-market hotel.


Tom Daykin

Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on April 12, 2002.