Downtown high-rise starts construction soon. It’s leasing parking at a city-owned garage

The developer of a planned downtown Milwaukee apartment high-rise is to lease parking stalls at a nearby city-owned structure.

Construction is to begin this spring on The Edison, a 32-story, 378-unit tower overlooking the Milwaukee River at 1005 N. Edison St.

Madison-based Neutral, its developer, plans to include 7,000 square feet of commercial space and a parking structure with up to 288 spaces.

A Neutral affiliate, The Edison SPE LLC, would lease 100 spaces of supplemental parking at the city-owned parking garage at 1024 N. Water St.

The Edison SPE would pay a monthly fee of just under $130 for each stall.

That’s under a five-year lease recommended for approval by the Common Council’s Public Works Committee on Wednesday. The full council is to review the proposed lease at its Feb. 11 meeting.

The lease would likely take effect in October 2027, when The Edison is projected to open, said Jordan Schettle, assistant city attorney.

That city-owned parking structure, with 1,550 stalls, is adjacent to the 1000 North Water office tower, which is owned separately.

It operated at around 90% capacity before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the rise of remote work has since dropped that to around 60%.

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