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Demolition to begin at the Pabst site
Published December 14, 2006 - BizTimes Daily
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The $13 million first phase of the redevelopment of the Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee will begin Jan. 2.
The property on the city's near west side will be transformed into "The Brewery" by real estate developer Joseph Zilber, chairman and founder of Milwaukee-based Zilber Ltd.
Zilber has created Brewery Project LLC specifically for the redevelopment of the Pabst site, said Mike Mervis, assistant to Zilber.
The first phase of the project will consist mostly of demolition and remediation, Mervis said.
Three buildings have been slated for demolition. Those structures, numbers 3, 20a and 41, as seen on www.pabstproject.com/aerials.html, are relatively new to the Pabst property, Mervis said.
"In the first phase (of the project), we're not dealing with any historic buildings," Mervis said. "We're demolishing what amounts to a bunch of lean-tos, add-ons, corrugated buildings and walkways that will not be used in any of the conceptual plans."
Other structures identified for demolition include a fuel oil tank, two fermenting tanks and a bridge that connects two of the buildings.
The first phase of renovations also includes asbestos and lead removal and other environmental remediation work in several buildings.
Crews working on the property will be supervised by K-M Development, general contractor for the project.
While demolition and abatement inside the non-historic buildings is going on, crews also will be removing a series of tunnels on the Pabst property. When the tunnels are removed, new street utilities such as power lines, fiber optics, storm and sanitary sewers will be installed, according to Jim Theusch, executive vice president of K-M Development.
The building demolition and abatement work is expected to last about six months, while the street work is slated to last about one year.
The second phase of demolition and abatement work, which may deal with some of the historic structures, could begin once the first phase is completed. However, Mervis said the project's financial assistance needs to be completed before a second phase begins.
"That's dependent on getting our (tax incremental financing) squared away," Mervis said. "And we would have to come up with our incremental increase sufficient enough to draw down funds. When we say to Jim (Theusch) that we're getting close, he starts scurrying around to start Phase 2."
Brewery Project LLC will hold a project kickoff ceremony at the Pabst Site in early January, Mervis said.
During that ceremony, the group will announce some local and national tenants that have agreed to locate in the redevelopment, said Mervis, who declined to name the prospective tenants.
Mervis said the project has attracted interest from both local and national developers.
"Our choice is, to the extent we can in all of these developments, to work with local and regional developers," Mervis said. "However, in a project like this, it's important to bring in national people with experience in historical. We've been very excited about the amount of local interest in retail and office components."
The first phase of work also will include asbestos and interior demolition in three buildings owned by Brew City Redevelopment Group LLC. Those buildings are numbered 27, 28 and 35 at www.pabstproject.com.
Jim Haertel, president of Brew City Redevelopment, said redevelopment of his buildings will proceed after the six-month first phase of the project is completed.
Cincinnati Restaurant Group Inc. plans to open a Hofbrauhaus microbrewery in a portion of the Pabst brewery site at 901-917 W. Juneau Ave. owned by Haertel's company.
"We're hoping to get the work done in the first six months of 2007," Haertl said. "It will be a shot in the arm to get these cleaned up and cleaned out. If we get this done, we can do a lot of other stuff, because we can't get in there until the asbestos remediation is done."
The Brewery project gained significant momentum this week when the Milwaukee Common Council unanimously approved a $29 million tax incremental financing (TIF) package for the development.
Haertl, who at one point had been locked out of his properties when the previous developer of the site, Juneau Avenue Partners LLC, changed the locks on the doors, said he has assumed legal titles to his buildings. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Haertl can proceed with his lawsuit against WisPark LLC and the Ferchill Group, the parties that formed Juneau Avenue partners. WisPark is the commercial real estate development subsidiary of Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Energy Corp.
Zilber is not involved in the suit. For more information about the suit, visit WisBusiness.com, a news partner of Small Business Times.
http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=79649
