It doesn’t seem like the biggest of retail deals: Zoup! — which, as its name suggests is a national soup-themed restaurant franchise — earlier this year leased 2,230 square feet in Wangard Partners’ Avenir mixed-use project in Milwaukee.
But with this relatively small lease, all of the 7,102 square feet of Avenir’s retail space was officially leased.
That’s good news for this mixed-use development in the Park East corridor section of Milwaukee’s Lower East Side. And it’s good news for downtown Milwaukee as a whole.
The Avenir brings much-needed luxury apartment space to downtown Milwaukee. The bulk of the project consists of 104 market-rate apartments. Like many apartment developers today, Wnagard Partners is marketing the Avenir to young buyers who want to walk to public transportation, shops and restaurants and ditch their cars. The Avenir, because of its central location, allows renters to do just that.
The apartments are now up for lease, and demand, so far, has been strong.
A key component of the project is its retail strip. In addition to Zoup!, retailers Jimmy John’s, Elite Nutrition, Great Clips and Q Nail Spa now call Avenir home.
CBRE’s Sandy Golden, vice president in the company’s Milwaukee office, led the leasing efforts for the retail portion of the project.
Golden said the addition of the retailers makes the Avenir an even more attractive project for potential tenants.
“These retailers will provide a variety of options conveniently located for the new residents as well as the general area,” Golden said, in a written statement.
