UWM Ready to Proceed with Innovation Park Plan

The president of the UWM Foundation announced Tuesday morning that it is ready to proceed this year with the first phase of construction of the Innovation Park research facility on the northeast quadrant of the County Grounds.

Dave Gilbert, president of the non-profit development arm of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a board member of the UWM Research Foundation, which is leading the effort to develop the project, told an audience of Wauwatosa Chamber of Commerce members that the intention is to break ground during this construction season.

The first construction on the site is being called the Business Accelerator Building, a $5.5 million project paid for largely through federal grants. The focus of the facility would be collaborative research with institutions already involved in research at the Medical Center and in Research Park.

“This is the water cooler of the campus,” Gilbert said. “It will involve multiple partners. We don’t want our faculty out there all by themselves.

“This is where we plant a stake in the ground, and where we hope to prove the concept.”

The Real Estate Foundation closed on the purchase of 89 acres of the County Grounds in February. Gilbert pointed out that not all of that space is developable, nor will the whole Innovation Park project be completed anytime soon.

“It might be a 20- to 25-year build-out,” he said. In the end, the project would total about 1.2 million square feet of development.

“At least half will be private development and will be on the tax rolls,” Gilbert said.

Of the total footprint, about 1 million square feet will be in research facilities and the remaining 200,000 square feet is expected to be residential.

Rehabbing the Eschweilers

This housing would be centered on the Eschweiler Campus, a group of buildings designed by Milwaukee architect Alexander Eschweiler that are collectively on the National Historic Registry. The buildings have been in disuse for many years and have fallen into a sad state of disrepair.

“They are pretty much just shells,” Gilbert said. He added that he expected about 100 housing units would be in the rehabilitated Eschweiler buildings and another 150 in new buildings on the grounds.

Gilbert noted that a no-build habitat zone had been established around three sides of the Eschweiler Campus to protect groves of trees that are stop-over sites for migrating monarch butterflies each autumn.

“We’ve been very conscious of the need to protect this,” he said. “That’s 11 acres that have been set aside for other purposes.”

The foundation received eight responses to a referral for proposals on redeveloping the Eschweilers, Gilbert said, but it appears that only one firm is still seriously in the running. Gilbert said that while the deal was not signed, Mandel Group of Milwaukee would be the likely developer.

“I’m hopeful that we are the likely candidate,” said Barry Mandel, president of Mandel Group. “While we haven’t signed an agreement yet, I anticipate that we’ll be able to do that.

“Our intention is to historically rehab the Eschweiler buildings and contribute new construction for our apartments. At the same time, we want to be very mindful of the environment, particularly pertaining to issues on the monarch habitat.

“It’s front and center for us, to be working with those people who know far more than we do what needs to be done to preserve this.”

Mandel said the current plan was for the all the housing units to be apartments. He estimated that the total cost for the property, the rehabilitation of the Eschweilers and new construction to be between $32 million and $37 million.

Possible public space on campus

Among the ideas Mandel is considering is using the smallest of the five historic buildings, a former maintenance facility, as some sort of public space.

“We may integrate in part of that building some access for groups to view the habitat,” he said. “In all our developments we have tried to not be separate and distinct from the community.

“Opening it up for the public is a logical, but it’s a concept right now. We need to open up more and discuss with those groups that have focused on the environment to know what their needs are.

“It would presumptuous of us to suggest what ought to be there, but we think there are probably myriad possibilities.”

Barb Agnew, a resident of Wauwatosa and co-owner of Barb and Dick’s Wildflower floral shop at 12326 W. Watertown Plank Rd., is the founder of the Monarch Trail and has been the leading advocate for preserving the butterfly habitat on the County Grounds.

She has suggested a number of such possibilities for using the building.

“This building has been the odd man out, and everyone has had to think hard about how to repurpose it,” she said. “They (Mandel and UWM) are looking at amenities. If there are amenities solely for residents, I think they would miss opportunities to attract attention to the whole project that they could realize if there were an amenity for all.

“It could be a café, coffee shop or a co-working facility, which is a concept that’s gaining popularity as a social, casual office space for all those people who now have an office on their laptops.

“It could be a visitor center for monarch habitat – a gathering point so as not to intrude on the residential space.

“It could be a UWM field station. There will need to be a maintenance facility for managing the habitat, someplace to work from. And that would be the perfect place.”