Michels Corp. is planning a $100 million mixed-use development at the former Horny Goat Hideaway property in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood, which will include office, apartments and a hotel.
The project, called R1ver, would be anchored by a new regional office for Michels. The Brownsville-based construction company is working on two major projects in southeastern Wisconsin – Foxconn and the I-94 expansion.
Michels is developing the project on a six-acre site northwest of South First Street and West Becher Street, along the Kinnickinnic River, with Milwaukee-based WiRED Properties and the Barry Company. Rinka Chung Architecture is the project’s designer.
The phased project is expected to begin in fall with construction of an eight-story office building that will be occupied by Michels Corp. Phase one is expected to be completed by summer 2020.
Tim Michels, vice president of Michels Corp., said initially about 400 employees will be located in about half of the building. He stressed that this will be a significant campus in Milwaukee, but Michels’ headquarters will remain in Brownsville, which is in Dodge County.
The majority of the jobs will be newly-created, Michels said. Jobs will include construction estimators and positions in human resources, marketing and the legal department. Michels is also hoping having a Milwaukee office will allow the company to attract more millennial talent and engineers.
“The Michels Family is proud to make this historic investment to continue to grow Wisconsin and Milwaukee,” Michels said.
When completely built out, the entire campus will include 220,000 square feet of office space, 67 units of multi-family housing, 19,000 square feet of retail, a 103 room hotel, and nearly 1,000 underground parking spaces.
As part of the project, the City of Milwaukee is planning to invest in over a thousand feet of publicly accessible Riverwalk, improve the streetscaping in the Becher Street corridor and assist in environmental remediation of the publicly accessible portions of the site.
“It’s great that Michels Corporation continues to grow, and it’s great that Milwaukee is a big part of the company’s plans,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said. “What the Michels Family proposes on the banks of the Kinnickinnic River adds economic activity, public access to the water, and a transformative new investment in the Harbor District.”
Michels Corp. purchased the former Horny Goat Hideaway brew pub property in April 2017 for $3.6 million.
Horny Goat, 2011-2029 S. First St. closed in October 2015. The property that Michels purchased included the brewery and an automotive drilling business, plus a smaller single-story office building that had been used for storage by the seller.
Last week, the 86-year-old former Milwaukee Fire Department pumping station on the property, which had been occupied by the Horny Goat Hideaway, was demolished.
