Future of 27th Street goes residential as commercial growth slows

When politicians in Franklin spoke of the 27th Street Corridor a few years back, one heard of a Disneyland of sorts for mid-to-high rise buildings, retailers galore, sprawling down a boulevard packed with landscaping, trees, park benches, and modern directional signage pointing out-of-state business travelers where to go (see left).

It's 2017, and boy have things changed.

Not only is Amazon dominating and killing off retailers left and right, but the planned office growth in the suburbs has reversed course as companies nationwide are focusing on a suburban retreat back to the cores of metropolitan areas. While downtowns across the country are booming with new skyscrapers and attractions (Downtown Milwaukee alone has $1.5 billion in new development underway as this post is being typed), the suburbs are being abandoned. And despite Franklin's close proximity to downtown, it's no exception to the realities of millennials' dreams of urban living.

Franklin and Oak Creek's years of planning for 27th Street have hit a crossroads. So, what does the future hold?

For southern 27th Street, both cities have made warehouses the go-to solution to solve potential TID dilemmas as projects never materialized and the districts needed growth before being closed as losses. Oak Creek worked with Liberty (now Zilber) and built several warehouses across from the Ascension hospital. Currently, Mayor Olson is tirelessly scheming with Franklin Business Park developer MLG to get another warehouse park built to the south of the hospital, from Oakwood Road to the county line. As of right now, Olson's on track to get his wish fulfilled.

However, northern 27th Street is taking on a different shape.

What was once highlighted for retailers and offices, this section from just south of Drexel north to College Avenue is slowly taking on new life in the residential market. As IKEA broke ground last week along I-94 north of Drexel, developers are working with Oak Creek officials on two separate areas, one north and one south of Drexel along 27th Street, for massive apartment complexes that could house hundreds (if not thousands) of new residents. This apartment boom isn't only happening on OC's side of the street, either. Franklin has seen proposals for two separate apartment complexes - one by Zilber just north of Northwestern Mutual's campus and another for senior apartments just west of the Dental Associates building on what is currently a superfund site.

At the same time, retailers are flocking away from Franklin and migrating to the new trendy Drexel Town Square and nearby commercial sites along Howell Avenue in Oak Creek versus the planned utopia of sorts Franklin leaders, especially Mayor Olson, saw for 27th Street. In a quasi-state for the corridor, while a new strip mall is under construction in front of Hobby Lobby, Gander Mountain is closing its store in the Riverwood mixed use development, Marcus shuttered its Value Cinema and transferred ownership of whom the site will turn into a Church, and Melrose Restaurant moved from being a 24 hour operation to one open from 6am to 3pm.

Without question, businesses and Franklin leaders are likely hedging their bets that IKEA will bring in more traffic and spillover of consumers to 27th Street. But, ironically enough for Franklin (whose residents despise it), apartments and mass transit might be the key to the commercial success of the corridor. While IKEA traffic won't likely cause spillover on 27th Street due to the Drexel Interchange next to the site, keeping consumers and vehicles within a "bubble" of sorts around the IKEA building, folks living in the apartments or traveling via Milwaukee County Transit buses will. Thousands of residents living along 27th Street will need places to shop, eat and play, and that's what the corridor will represent in future development. Those apartments and transit connections are likely what's going to save the corridor from turning into a corridor of eyesores and lower property values (which would turn into lower property tax revenues for the city).

Surely this won't go over well with some higher privileged folks in Franklin, but to save city residents from property tax increases, it might be the only solution.