Construction of public plaza in Milwaukee's Harbor District to begin soon with city approval

A public plaza planned for Milwaukee's redeveloping Harbor District received a key city approval Wednesday, with construction beginning soon.

Harbor District Inc. plans to develop the plaza, which would include a canoe and kayak launch, at the end of East Greenfield Avenue. That site is near the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee's School of Freshwater Sciences.

The nonprofit group, which helps spur redevelopment efforts near the harbor, has raised $1.2 million for the project, and is ready to begin building the plaza, said Lilith Fowler, executive director.

The launch is to be ready by early next year, Fowler told members of the Common Council's Public Works Committee.

The committee unanimously approved leasing a city-owned lot to Harbor District Inc. That lease also needs full council approval, which is scheduled to happen at the July 31 meeting.

In lieu of paying rent for the lot, which is about one-third of an acre, Harbor District Inc. will install and maintain the plaza.

Along with the kayak and canoe launch, it will include places to sit, a "water play" area and a shipping container that will serve as a small viewing tower, Fowler said.

"I think eventually we'd love to see an opportunity for people to rent a kayak" at the plaza, she told committee members.

Harbor District boosters say the plaza will help draw more attention to the inner harbor area, while also improving public access to the waterfront.

The Harbor District has around 1,000 acres bordered roughly by South First Street, the lakefront, the Milwaukee River and Bay Street/Becher Street.

The district's water and land use plan, approved in February by the Common Council and Mayor Tom Barrett, calls for a long-term transformation of former industrial sites into housing, offices and other new uses.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.