Half of downtown office building could become apartments as Milwaukee pushes for more housing

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — A recognizable office building in downtown Milwaukee could become home to more than 200 new apartment units, and it may not be the only building downtown to do so.

Milwaukee's Commissioner of City Development, Lafayette Crump, tells CBS 58 the city has several under-utilized buildings in the downtown area, and there are discussions about them taking on new life.

"It's really being imaginative enough to think about, how is this building best used?" Crump said in an interview Tuesday.

In the last few years, Milwaukee has seen major companies create new spaces downtown, like Milwaukee Tool and Northwestern Mutual.

Crump says that means older buildings may need to look at re-development ideas.

"In a lot of cases, it's much better to convert those buildings into residential rather than tearing them down and starting over, or trying to retro-fit them for better office use," he explained.

That could happen to one of the city's largest office buildings, the bright blue 310W building in Milwaukee's Westown neighborhood.

Records show an architectural group filed a review request last week with the Department of Neighborhood Services, to propose converting half of the building into 222 apartment units.

"Adding more housing right in the heart of downtown on the west side of the river, it's really, really exciting," Crump said in response to the filing. "I love it that they're interested in doing this."

The building's owner, Time Equities, Inc., sent this statement to CBS 58:

"While the architect filed for permitting to showcase potential apartment layouts, this conversion is not confirmed and the permit doesn’t obligate the developer to move forward with this. Ongoing discussions and critical steps need to be completed before anything is done."

Meanwhile, a similar plan is in the works at the 100 East building downtown, to convert office space into 380 apartments.

Crump said projects like this are key to expanding diverse housing options, especially for what the city calls "workforce housing," targeted toward residents from 60% to 100% area median incomes.

"We want to see vibrance downtown, and we obviously want to have plenty of places for people to live in this city," Crump explained.

Last month, the Department of City Development added guidelines for tax incremental financing that would make financial aid available to developers converting commercial buildings into residential properties.