Developer drafts plans for part of Pabst complex
Gorman would preserve some of brewery's buildings

By Tom Daykin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 12, 2006

A firm that specializes in redeveloping old factories and other historic buildings has drafted conceptual plans to convert part of the former Pabst brewery complex into apartments, offices and retail space.

Gorman & Co. tentatively plans to buy 4 acres, bordered by W. Juneau Ave. and W. Winnebago, N. 9th and N. 10th streets, and create around 250 apartments, a 48,000-square-foot office building and 23,000 square feet of street-level retail space, Executive Vice President Tom Capp said Tuesday.

The downtown Milwaukee development would use a mix of historic buildings and new construction, Capp said.

Gorman would preserve most of the parcel's 19th- and early 20th-century buildings, including the former keg house overlooking the new McKinley Ave., Capp said. But buildings too difficult and costly to restore would be demolished, he said.

The development would include a two-level underground parking structure, Capp said. A preliminary cost estimate for the development is $60 million to $65 million, he said.

Gorman's proposal is among the first conceptual ideas to emerge for the 21-acre Pabst property since November, when local real estate investment firm Zilber Ltd. secured a purchase option for the site. Zilber expects to complete its purchase by early summer, said Mike Mervis, assistant to Zilber Chairman Joseph Zilber.

Zilber executives have created broad conceptual plans to redevelop the brewery site into housing, offices and retail space, and those concepts were presented Tuesday to real estate brokers, Mervis said. The concepts represent a starting point in Zilber's efforts to market the Pabst site to developers and investors, Mervis said, and likely will be revised before being formally presented to city officials.

Along with Gorman, Johnson Controls Inc. has emerged with a possible role at the Pabst site, Mervis said. Johnson Controls executives have discussed the possibility of developing a regional training center, he said. Those plans are "highly preliminary," said Monica Levy, a Johnson Controls spokeswoman.

Gorman, based in Madison, has redeveloped several historic buildings into apartments.

The firm's Milwaukee projects include the $15 million conversion of a former hospital building at 2200 W. Kilbourn Ave. into 99 apartments that opened in November. That project, like others done by Gorman, used affordable housing tax credits for part of its financing package.

Those federal tax credits are given to developers who agree to rent some of their apartments at below-market rents to moderate-income people. If Gorman received those credits for the Pabst project, it would provide about 70 apartments at reduced rents, Capp said.

Gorman also would seek federal and state historic preservation tax credits, Capp said. Those credits are given to developers who agree to restore historic buildings to certain specifications.

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