Milwaukee Development Corporation

The Kenilworth Project

The Kenilworth Project is a partnership with Weas Development to redevelop a former 500,000-square-foot manufacturing building on Milwaukee’s East Side as the new home for UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, housing for 370 graduate students, parking, retail space, and a linkage to the Lakefront bike trail. The project provides a new tax base and momentum for UWM as it seeks to strengthen its research profile.

BEFORE	AFTER

Harley Davidson Museum 

The MDC played a critical role in helping to free up land in the Menomonee Valley to make way for the Harley-Davidson Museum. The museum opened in 2008 and generates approximately $78 million in annual spending, plus 70 jobs.

BEFORE	AFTER

Milwaukee Center Theater District

With a vision for one-stop enjoyment of Milwaukee’s world-class arts scene, the MDC formed a joint venture with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater to create a downtown Milwaukee Center Theater District. Today, along with the three performance venues for the Milwaukee Rep., the District offers audiences the Historic Pabst Theater, a 200 room hotel (The Intercontinental) with additional meeting space, and a 300,000 square foot office tower.

Yankee Hill Housing 

The MDC was a joint venture partner with the Madsen Corporation of Madison, Wisconsin in the development of the 354-unit Yankee Hill, the first major housing development in downtown Milwaukee in 20 years. The rental project includes two apartment towers built between Jackson and Van Buren Streets north of Kilbourn Avenue. Leasing has been a resounding success.  

East Point Commons

This 11-acre, 3-block site includes 124 apartments and 64 townhouses on property that had been slated for a highway extension that was never built. The project helped revitalize the northeast end of downtown and was designed to blend with existing neighborhood architecture. The MDC served as coordinator and mediator for the project, working together with community and government agencies and secured a tax incremental finance district. The second phase of the project introduced a high-quality grocery store and an additional 18,000 square feet of retail space.

The Grand Avenue

At the time of a deteriorating downtown economy, the redevelopment of west Wisconsin Avenue into the Hyatt Regency, and Henry Reuss Federal Plaza, and the Grand Avenue was a large-scale boost to revitalize the urban marketplace and downtown landscape. The Grand Avenue project covered four city blocks and included 125 shops with two existing department stores, combining new construction with historic architecture and totaling 245,000 square feet of retail space. The Grand Avenue (today, the Shops at Grand Avenue) fostered important partnerships between the business community and the City of Milwaukee. The MDC was the catalyst for the project, responsible for $16 million in stockholder equity.

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