Almost five years after an initial proposal to redevelop the
former Sears building on Milwaukee's near northwest side, developer
Kalan Haywood is back again with a completely new proposal for the site, and a new development team.
Haywood of Milwaukee-based
Haywood Group LLC initially proposed an 80-room boutique hotel, called the Ikon Hotel, with a restaurant and bar in the vacant space at 2100 W. North Ave. with a new conference center next door.
Now, partnering with Milwaukee-based
F Street Development and Milwaukee architecture firm
Rinka, Haywood is planning a mixed-use development for the site that would include an art gallery, craft brewery, events venue, office space, retail space and housing on the 7-acre site.
"This is not groundhog day,” Haywood told the city's Redevelopment Authority board on Thursday. “This is us back again, this is a real thing that we’re still trying to figure out. The world has kept changing on us.”
In 2019, the city created a tax incremental financing district to provide a $4 million predevelopment loan to Haywood. Since then, about $3.85 million has been spent on acquisition, demo and other holding costs.
Haywood was to begin repaying that loan in September, but the Redevelopment Authority extended the deadline for the third time on Thursday — this time to March 2025.
Details of the new proposal
Currently all one continuous parcel, the new development plan calls for reconnecting a city street through the site's vacant portion, diving the parcel in two.
The vacant western part of the site, would be developed with about 50 market-rate townhomes.
"As we're looking at how to make the site work, we also try to keep in mind how do we create increment," Haywood said. "(The housing component) helps us get into the ground. Our intent is to move pretty quickly on figuring out the housing component."
The site's three-story former Sears building, built in 1927 in the Art Deco style, will no longer be converted into a hotel, but the project's architects say they still want to make the building a point of interest for neighbors and visitors.
The first floor would be divided into several spaces:
- The space at the point of the triangular building would be used as a 10,600-square-foot art gallery, which would be run by a group from UW-Madison, a Racine art gallery and a group from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, according to Haywood.
- Adjacent to the gallery would be a 4,800-square-foot lobby area.
- A 10,500-square-foot space along Fond du Lac Avenue would be used as event space. Haywood said that the development team has an operator out of Chicago that does live entertainment who would put on events, but plans on how to use the space more frequently have not been finalized.
- Facing a courtyard would be three retail spaces of about 2,600 square feet each and a brewery with about 7,600 square feet. Haywood said the development team has been in communication with an operator for the brewery space.
The second floor would include about 40,000 square feet of office space, including a coworking space and the third floor would have "efficiency" apartments.
The board's unanimous vote to extend the loan came after member Bill Schwartz asked that a "realistic analysis" be created about the project's feasibility.
Haywood cited the pandemic and increases in construction costs, inflation and interest rates as reasons for the project's previous delays.
"We do have some momentum," Haywood said.
"We're excited to bring our financing background, our investor platform to the site," said
Nick Jung, director of development with F Street.
Commissioner of City Development
Lafayette Crump said he is excited about the project, calling the area a very important destination in Milwaukee.
