City again seeks development proposals for long-vacant Wisconsin Avenue site

City of Milwaukee officials are again seeking development proposals for a long-vacant Wisconsin Avenue site on downtown’s west side.

The city’s Redevelopment Authority has issued an updated request for proposals (RFP), calling the site at 401 W. Wisconsin Ave. “one of the most unique transit-oriented development opportunities in the Midwest,” in a press release.

The city-owned 1.3-acre site, currently a parking lot, is located on the south side of Wisconsin Avenue, across the street from the Wisconsin Center. An ongoing $456 million expansion project for the convention center, which will be renamed the Baird Center, is expected to be complete next year.

The 401 W. Wisconsin Ave. site sits between North 5th Street and North Vel R. Phillips Ave. Across the street to the east is the HUB640 building, where Fiserv Inc. plans to move its headquarters and where Kohl’s plans to open a store. The Hilton Milwaukee City Center hotel is located across the street to the west.

The site is just south of where Vel R. Phillips Plaza, which has $16 million in city funding and will open next year, will be built along Wisconsin Avenue. The plaza will feature a 2,900-square-foot food/beverage retail space, a garden, a flex space that could host farmers markets, food trucks or other community events, public art installations, and a station to accommodate Milwaukee County’s Bus-Rapid Transit Line and a future stop for The Hop streetcar system.

The city’s asking price for the 1.3-acre development site is $3.3 million. The RFP documents indicate the city will not offer tax increment financing (TIF) or other city financing for market-rate housing or a hotel development on the site. However, TIF might be considered for projects that attract or retain jobs or create affordable housing units, according to the RFP.

The site was once home to the Randolph Hotel, which was demolished in 1985. Since then, development proposals for the site have failed to move forward, including a 2007 plan by a North Carolina-based development that called for a condo tower, a hotel, restaurants, retail and entertainment space. Later, in response to a city RFP in 2016, hotel development and meeting space proposals were pitched by Jackson Street Holdings and The Marcus Corp., but neither was selected by the city and they never moved forward.

The latest RFP for the 401 W. Wisconsin Ave. site is a rolling RFP, meaning the city will accept proposals on a continuous basis.