Milwaukee County will forgo its right to reclaim the land where The Couture is being built and will defer ownership to the city of the transit center component of the project.
That's according to the terms of a modified development agreement between the county and The Couture's developer, Barrett Lo Visionary Development.
The Couture is a 44-story apartment tower at 909 E. Michigan Ave., at the site of the former county-owned Downtown Transit Center in Milwaukee. After years of delay, the $188 million project is
on track for a January groundbreaking after being
approved for a $103.5 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Its developer, Barrett Lo Visionary Development, is updating its agreements with the various parties including Milwaukee County
and the city of Milwaukee.
One component of the Milwaukee County agreement is that the county will forgo its right to take back The Couture site. The county
sold the site to Barrett Lo in 2016 for $500,000.
Forgoing its right to take back the land, which it has held since the land sale but never exercised, was actually a requirement from HUD, Aaron Hertzberg, Milwaukee County economic development director, said.
Hertzberg said HUD would not be willing to execute the loan guarantee "if the county could in its right step in and take the property back."
But Milwaukee County would only forgo this right once The Couture had progressed to a point when it is clear the project will be completed, said Hertzberg. That is, once the developer has closed on all financing, when there are completion bonds executed for every aspect of the project, and "everything's basically in place for the project to occur," he said.
Hertzberg's comments came during a meeting of the Milwaukee County Board's Economic and Community Development Committee. He updated committee members on the agreement changes, though the updates did not need approval by the committee or County Board.
Hertzberg also noted the public transit concourse portion of The Couture is to be owned by the city. The concourse will serve both the city streetcar's lakefront line and the county's bus rapid-transit system.
He said county officials "appropriately suggest" the city own the transit piece because of factors such as the complexity of the streetcar infrastructure as opposed to the bus rapid-transit stop.
Plus, having the city own the concourse as opposed to keeping it in private hands will likely be a bonus for the county.
"From our perspective, I think we have probably more in common and common interests with the city of Milwaukee than we do with the actual developer, who we originally intended to lease from," Hertzberg said. "And so, in reviewing this with our attorneys, we feel confident that the impact of the ownership of the (concourse) to the city of Milwaukee may have some mild benefits to us, but certainly doesn't hurt us as we would still continue to have our lease without fee."
Still, the decision on ownership did not sit well with County Board supervisor and committee member John Weishan. He opined that it is the role of Milwaukee County, not the city, to run local transit. He also suggested the county should own the concourse because of its role in making The Couture happen.
"The city of Milwaukee should not be in the transit business," he said. "It's Milwaukee County that runs the transit system."
Weishan later added, "To me, it doesn't make much sense why we would enter into a lease and not have ownership of that space. I consider that to be a fairly large change in this whole thing."
Hertzberg said regardless of Weishan's feelings on local transit control, the city has its own transit system with the streetcar. He also noted county officials made their own determination in consultation with the county's own Department of Transportation.
Similar to the updated agreement with the city, The Couture developer's agreement with the county also updates project timelines. For instance, Barrett Lo is to close on project financing before the end of January. Construction is then to begin by Feb. 1, and finish on or before Aug. 1, 2023.
The transit concourse is also required to be in operation by mid-2022, so that the city can meet a federal deadline to begin streetcar operations.
