IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 06, 2023
 

City of Milwaukee Seeks Development Proposals for Marcus Center Parking Garage
 

MILWAUKEE – The City of Milwaukee is seeking proposals for a premier site and development opportunity centrally located in the heart of the City. 

Situated at 1001 North Water Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the 106,432 square-feet site is located directly to the north of the Marcus Performing Arts Center (MPAC), which draws over 200,000 visitors annually. 

Downtown has many very active blocks, however this site has been a non-contributor to the activation of the North Water Street corridor due to its singular use as a parking facility and its setback from North Water Street. A key outcome of the successful RFP responder will be to raise the vibrancy of this block and its new use to offer activation of the site’s urban edges.

The future use of the site is intended to serve as a major east/west portal that is engaged by downtown visitors moving to-and-from Pere Marquette Park and the Deer District on the west side of the Milwaukee River. It also serves to link together areas both north and south along Water Street.

An aggressive mixed-use development with ground floor public activation, which includes a mix of uses, is ideal at this site. Ground floor uses might include restaurants, art galleries or cultural/civic uses; with residential, hotel, office, cultural/civic uses above. These uses should be used to wrap any above ground structured parking on the site. The parking ramp component should be considered a design opportunity in and of itself, making the experience of parking there a favorable experience for users.

The Connec+ing MKE: Downtown Plan 2040, which was recently signed into law by Mayor Cavalier Johnson, also recommends replacing the parking structure for the Marcus Center with a new high-density, mixed-use development.

More information about the RFP is available at milwaukee.gov/MarcusCenterRFP.

Throughout Downtown Milwaukee, there is an extraordinary renaissance occurring, with over $4.5 billion in projects completed since 2010 and another $1 billion under construction or in advanced planning stages. In the greater downtown area, over 9,500 housing units and 1,300 hotel rooms have been developed since 2010. An additional 4,200 housing units are in planning or under construction within the downtown area, scheduled to be completed in 2023-26.

Because of this extraordinary investment and substantial growth, the greater downtown Milwaukee area has witnessed an estimated 26.5% increase in the downtown residential population (now 42,000) since 2010. This is in addition to 90,700 workers and more than six million annual downtown visitors.

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