Park East Enterprise Lofts
The Opportunity
Milwaukee’s Park East corridor was emerging from the removal of an elevated freeway and needed development that would bring residents, street activity and economic life back to newly available urban land.
The Challenge
The concept asked the market to embrace a then-unusual product: mixed-income apartments designed around entrepreneurship and live/work activity, in a corridor that had not yet established strong residential or retail foot traffic.
The Approach
Build around the needs of entrepreneurs. The 85-unit project incorporated live/work lofts, ground-level work and retail areas, conference and business facilities, presentation space and shared amenities that made working from home part of the concept.
The Result
Park East delivered 85 mixed-income apartments, 68 of them income-restricted, with a meaningful live/work component. Early occupancy and waiting-list demand helped validate the concept.
Why It Matters
Housing can be economic-development infrastructure. Rather than separating home, work and neighborhood revitalization, the project linked all three — and helped show what the Park East corridor could become.