Milwaukee-based Barrett Lo Visionary Development, the firm building the 44-story Couture luxury apartment tower near the downtown lakefront and the developer of The Moderne apartment tower in downtown Milwaukee and the Emerald Row apartments at Drexel Town Square in Oak Creek, is the developer that plans to build 906 apartments near the former Boston Store at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa.
The apartment development plans for the parking area around the former Boston Store at Mayfair Mall surfaced last month, but city records at the time did not indicate who the developer was. Now an agenda for Wauwatosa’s Financial Affairs Committee indicates that Barrett Lo is the development firm for the project.
The three-phase plan calls for building 463 residential units, 6,667 square feet of commercial space and a parking structure with 617 parking stalls in phase one. The remaining residential units would be built after the first phase has been stabilized.
A tax incremental financing district (TIF) plan calls for $57.9 million in city spending for the development. The TIF money would be used for watermain improvements and pedestrian connections around the site, as well as other site improvements.
Once all three phases of the development are complete, the city would have $111.6 million in additional taxable property by 2027, the TIF plan says.
The city of Wauwatosa purchased the vacant 15-acre Boston Store property last July for $3.95 million with the intent of redeveloping the site. The city said it plans on working with Mayfair’s owners, Brookfield Properties, in finding a new retailer for the former Boston Store building.
All of the Boston Store locations were shuttered after its parent company Bon-Ton filed for bankruptcy in 2018. In addition to the Mayfair Mall store, those included stores at Brookfield Square in Brookfield, Southridge Mall in Greenfield and Regency Mall in Racine.
Barrett Lo Visionary Development also has plans to redevelop the former Boston Store site at Southridge Mall, with up to 790 apartments and 50,000 square feet of commercial space.