A Milwaukee couple behind a string of Bronzeville corridor restorations are pressing ahead with a three-storey mass timber hybrid office and retail building at 1703 North Phillips Avenue — tapping Korb Architects, the firm behind the world’s then-tallest mass timber tower, to lead the design. That is according to plans presented to the Bronzeville Advisory Committee on March 16, where developer Sharon Grinker outlined the project and flagged that construction could begin before the end of 2026.
Korb Architects is responsible for delivering The Ascent — the 25-storey hybrid tower that broke ground in August 2020 and opened in 2022, which, at the time, displaced Norway’s Mjøsa Tower as the world’s tallest mass timber structure. The firm’s Sarah Colacino is leading design and permitting on the Bronzeville project, with spring sign-off targeted and summer the window for construction bids and financing.
The development is driven by It Had to be You LLC, an affiliate of Sid Grinker Restoration, run by Sharon’s husband, Michael. The couple purchased the North Phillips Avenue site in 2020 for US$306,900 and now plans to demolish the vacant apartment building to make way for the build.
Wood Central understands that the new building will be a mass timber hybrid — and is designed to maximise sustainable green building features. Street level will carry office or retail, whilst the two floors above will be dedicated office space, each housing a single tenant across approximately 2,500 square feet, with the entrance fronting Walnut Street.
The proposal is a scaled-back version of an earlier seven-storey design — a reduction that the Historic King Drive Business Improvement District’s executive director, Ray Hill, endorsed. “I think this fits a lot better and more comfortably in the district’s aesthetic,” Hill said, “and also still gives great views to the downtown landscape.”
Grinker told the committee the couple’s footprint in the corridor spans years. “We’ve been doing these types of projects in the neighbourhood and in the corridor for quite some time,” she said. The couple own the Pilcrow Coffee building at 416 West Walnut Street, renovated the old Dillon Bindery in 2017 — now home to RetailWorks at 424 West Walnut — and previously partnered with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District on green stormwater infrastructure behind Dead Bird Brewing. Grinker said she hopes to secure tenants before the building reaches completion.
