Updated: 5:18 PM CDT May 11, 2021
Crews ceremoniously began construction work Tuesday morning on what will become the tallest residential tower in Wisconsin.The Couture will be built at East Michigan Street and North Lincoln Memorial Drive in Milwaukee.The 44-story building will be home to 322 luxury apartments when completed, as well as retail space and a transit system connection."It's going to be a very dynamic building because it also has a transit hub, which includes a street car and the bus rapid transit line," developer Rick Barrett said.The project has been in the works for nearly a decade.Barrett bought the site four years ago, but setbacks and the pandemic slowed the process."We had a full team of investors set up right when the pandemic hit and basically once that hit, we threw all the cards up on the table and had to find new investors," he said.The federal government stepped in with a $104.7 million loan to get the project going."This is a big project. It's exciting. It's fun. It's iconic for the city of Milwaukee," general manager Eric Wynn said. "Excited to be partnered with Rick and his team again to change Milwaukee's skyline."Crews will spend the next eight months excavating the site for an underground parking garage.Vertical construction will begin early next year.The project will provide an estimated 4,400 construction jobs, and once completed, an estimated 200 permanent jobs.The Couture is expected to open by fall 2023.