MSOE to invest in Park East Corridor
| Published: 11/09/2010 |
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Milwaukee School of Engineering is preparing to make an investment of about $30 million to help spur development in the vacant Park East area. This development will have a significant impact on the Park East Corridor, as the first major development of its kind in the area. The development will be largely supported with a very generous donation from Drs. Robert and Patricia Kern. The project will not require any funding from the City of Milwaukee or Milwaukee County.
If approved, MSOE’s investment will result in an in-ground, 780-car parking facility topped by an athletic field, and a small, ground-level public park that would be developed and maintained by MSOE. The facility will be located on an undeveloped parcel of land immediately north of the university’s Kern Center at the northwest corner of Broadway and Knapp Street. The athletic field would be used for collegiate soccer and lacrosse and youth sports. As an extension of the Kern Center, it further supports MSOE’s commitment to student wellness and development as a whole person. “We are very pleased to support the future viability of MSOE to produce the technological graduates so desperately needed to ensure the economic stability of our country,” stated Dr. Robert Kern.
The elevation of the site drops by nearly two levels across a diagonal of the site, which will allow a unique construction of the parking facility into the hill and topped by an athletic field at ground level on the corner of Broadway and Knapp Street. Uihlein-Wilson Architects are the project developers.
Marshall & Ilsley Corporation and Milwaukee County currently own the land on which the project will be built. In order to move forward with the project, ownership of the parcel and others need to be changed. The change would involve a property trade and purchase between Marshall & Ilsley Corporation and Milwaukee County, and a purchase of about 2½ acres by MSOE. The project requires approval by the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors and zoning approval by the City of Milwaukee Common Council.
“We look forward to working with M&I, the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to create an important addition to downtown Milwaukee,” said Dr. Hermann Viets, president of MSOE. “As a major stakeholder in the downtown and Park East area, we view the availability of parking as an excellent opportunity to spur development without the need for city or county dollars.”
Impact on downtown Milwaukee
MSOE’s investment will provide an important catalyst for additional development in the Park East area. Approximately 150 people will be employed during the construction of the facility. It creates an attractive green space and provides much-needed parking, both of which are likely to prove attractive for other commercial development. Of the 780 parking spaces, approximately 500 would be leased to business and the public, thereby generating taxable revenue.
MSOE will develop and maintain a small public park at the north end of the athletic field/parking facility. There also will be space for a small restaurant and/or coffee house adjacent to the park in the lower levels of the parking facility, offering potential for additional tax revenue.
This project would provide shared parking opportunities for the Park East area, while maintaining the existing street grid with an accessible, contemporary construction design. The development will serve as an attractive addition that would provide much needed green space and parking in the area and create an inviting amenity that would complement the urban residential and retail mix prescribed for the area.
About the Kerns
Drs. Robert and Patricia Kern founded Generac Power Systems of Waukesha, Wis. in 1959 out of their garage with one employee, and grew it into a 2,000-person operation with a number of facilities in Wisconsin, the Midwest and overseas. The company produces generators for industrial and consumer markets. The Kerns sold the business in 2006. They are longtime supporters of MSOE and benefactors of MSOE’s scholarship programs. Through their phenomenal support of the Kern Center, which opened in 2004, the Kerns have provided first-class wellness, exercise and sports facilities for all MSOE students, alumni, faculty and staff. Robert Kern has served the university as a member of the Board of Regents since 1992, and he holds an Honorary Doctor of Engineering from MSOE. Patricia Kern holds an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from MSOE.