Site work on downtown Milwaukee s $420 million convention center expansion is expected to begin in early July.
That s according to a project update presented at a Friday board meeting of the Wisconsin Center District, the state-created public agency which operates the Wisconsin Center convention facility.
The expansion will double the facility s space giving it the ability to host two major events at the same time.
Construction work is likely to start in January.
But work to prepare the development site will start this summer, said Mike Abrams, senior director at CAA Icon, the Denver-based firm hired by the center district to oversee the project.
A new indoor urban farm at Milwaukee s Century City Business Park will begin operations this summer.
Known as Hundred Acre, it will grow fresh greens, including holy basil, spring mix and baby kale, within an industrial building at 3945 N. 31st St.
The specialized farm will use a 5,000-square-foot controlled environmental system with vertical hydroponics, according to the Wednesday announcement from operator Brooklyn, New York-based Planet to Plate Inc.
Hundred Acre s greens will be grown without pesticides or herbicides. They will be available year-round and harvested weekly.
The environmentally sustainable farm’s goal is to improve access to fresh, healthy food while helping revitalize the surrounding 30th Street Industrial Corridor.
The 295-unit luxury apartment tower proposed for Milwaukee s Historic Third Ward would rise 32 floors a height roughly three to four times that of many of the neighborhood s older buildings.
But its location, at the Third Ward s northern entrance, is an appropriate spot for a high-rise that will complement similarly tall downtown buildings, according to its development team.
That message was delivered Wednesday to the Historic Third Ward Architectural Review Board, which did an initial review of the $140 million project.
The board granted conceptual approval, but another review will occur for final approval.
Known as 333 N. Water, the 365-foot high-rise fits in the scale of other (downtown) residential buildings, said Devon Patterson, principal at Solomon Cordwell Buenz, the project s architect.