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A Rinka rendering of The Couture.
The Couture finally nears construction By Alex Zank, staff writer The Couture, a long-planned $188 million, 44-story luxury residential tower development near downtown Milwaukee’s lakefront, has been approved for a $103.5 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency announced recently.
The loan guarantee is the last crucial piece The Couture developer, Rick Barrett of Milwaukee-based Barrett Lo Visionary Development, sought in putting together the project financing. The developer said construction is slated to begin in January. A spokesperson for Barrett Lo added
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the firm expects to close on the project financing this month. “HUD’s firm commitment marks the final financial commitment required for us to begin construction on The Couture,” Barrett said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be working with the city, county and HUD on this catalytic development that will transform this vacant site into a dynamic public space that improves access to the lakefront, creates thousands of new jobs and adds a signature building to Milwaukee’s skyline.” The successful application comes nearly three months after Barrett reapplied for the HUD loan guarantee, after letting a previous loan application lapse. It has been about six months since Barrett announced he had secured enough investor equity. The 700,000-square-foot development is to include approximately 300 apartments, 50,000 square feet of commercial space, 900 parking spaces and a transit center for The Hop streetcar line and Milwaukee County’s planned bus rapid-transit system. Vertical construction could begin six months from groundbreaking, according to a timeline provided by a spokesperson for Barrett Lo. Construction will initially focus on the removal of an existing sewer line and groundwork. Groundwork should take about
three months, and then it will be another three months for crews to work back up to ground level to begin vertical construction. Plans for The Couture were first announced in 2012. It was delayed by a lawsuit over the development rights of the site, and then could not collect enough investor equity to satisfy the requirements of its first application for a HUD guarantee. A modified development agreement between the city of Milwaukee and the developer of The Couture sets new deadlines for the project, including that construction begins no later than Feb. 1. The agreement also requires construction of the tower and related public infrastructure to finish no later than 42 months after work commences. The public transportation concourse that’s part of The Couture project also needs to be functional by the end of June 2022 so the city can have the streetcar’s lakefront line in operation by that time. The city has a development agreement in place with Barrett Lo because the city is contributing up to $50.5 million through tax incremental financing. According to the amended agreement, the city has until July 31, 2022 to get the streetcar line extension operating in order to receive a federal grant.n
