Construction work will begin soon for the Goll Mansion apartment tower on Milwaukee’s East Side, a project that will include moving a 120-year-old house and building a 28-story, 192-unit apartment tower behind it.
Developers of the controversial $55 million project have secured financing and will soon begin the first phase of construction, which is moving the mansion, at 1550 N. Prospect Ave., said Thomas Miller, principal with Kahler Slater architecture in Milwaukee, who designed the project.
“The project has secured financing and is moving forward,” Miller said. “Planning, testing and preparation is ongoing and an exact date for the move hasn’t been identified.”
Kahler Slater pulled a building permit for the project with the city on Jan. 16. C.D. Smith Construction is the general contractor on the project.
Miller did not say how the project is being financed. Madison-based developer Chris Houden, with Palisade Properties Management LLC, could not be reached for comment.
The plan for the site is to move the 9,000-square-foot mansion about 30 feet from its current location toward the street.
The move will be done by putting the house on tracks, moving it backwards, towards Lake Michigan, building a new foundation for the home closer to Prospect Avenue, and then moving the home onto its new foundation.
The 360,000-square-foot residential tower will be built east of the house facing Lake Michigan.
Houden and Miller have been working on the Goll project since early 2016, hitting several road blocks along the way from neighbors who didn’t want additional traffic, construction disturbances or blocked views and an aldermen who attempted to block the project.
After being denied by the Milwaukee Common Council in 2016, the developer resurfaced with a new development plan for the site in mid-2017 that was approved in September, 18 months after originally being proposed.
The Goll Mansion apartment tower is not the only apartment tower project in or near downtown Milwaukee. In June or July construction will be completed on Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company’s 7sevety7 tower, a 315-unit apartment tower, which includes 14 penthouse units, at 777 N. Van Buren St.
