Urban Milwaukee stops by the demolition of the BMO Harris Bank parking garage

01/05/2018

Urban Milwaukee stopped by the demolition of the BMO Harris Bank parking garage at the southeast corner of N. Water St. and E. Wells St. Viet & Co. is currently taking down the garage in advance of real estate developer Irgens building a 25-story, $132-million tower on the site.

 

The office tower, to be known as the BMO Tower, will include 359,920 square feet of office space and 18,994 square feet of retail space. Contracting firm J&H Findorff & Son, Inc. will lead the construction of the new tower. Kahler Slater is serving as the project architect.

 

A raze permit for the garage was issued on October 3rd, though significant work didn’t get underway until after a formal groundbreaking ceremony on November 16. City records indicate that Viet paid $5,080 for the permit and estimated the cost of the demolition at $80,000. City records indicate the garage had 417 spaces.

 

City records list the garage as being built in 1967 in conjunction with the 21-story M&I Bank tower. Long the largest Wisconsin bank, M&I was acquired by Chicago-based BMO Harris in 2011.

 

As part of big redevelopment scheme, Irgens will also redevelop the existing tower. That part of the project won’t start until 2020 at the earliest.

 

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