Oct. 15, 2010
With the Shops of Grand Avenue in the news lately, it's worth noting that some new apartments recently opened in the mall's Plankinton Arcade building.
Known as Plankinton Loft Apartments, the four new units are the result of old office space that was remodeled by developer Ken Breunig.
He leads an investment group that owns the entire third floor and part of the fifth floor at the Plankinton Arcade. The mall's owner, an investment group led by New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., owns the building's lower levels. Additional upper floors are owned by the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin System.
Breunig already has occupants for the four apartments, which are on the third floor. He has more apartments coming, and plans to eventually have 28 units built by the end of 2011.
The first apartments are 1,200 to 1,300 square feet, and have monthly rents of $1,300 to $1,400, he said. The next phase, Breunig said, will have smaller units, of 1,000 to 1,100 square feet, and will rent for $1,000 to $1,200.
Breunig said he plans to use federal and state historic preservation tax credits to help finance the additional apartments. Those credits let developers reduce their costs if they renovate an historic building according to federal design and construction guidelines.
