The first stage of Edison is days away from breaking ground with work on the 31-storey plyscraper—which will use 100,000 cubic metres of lumber—will be constructed in two stages, the first (made up of 15 stories) starting next week. That is according to Nat Helbach, CEO of Neutral, the project’s developer, who announced that LA-based coffee boutique Copa Vida would be the ply scraper’s first tenant.
“They think it’s a great opportunity to bring West Coast coffee culture to the Midwest,” Helbach told the Milwaukee Business Journal. “It’s really a step towards a more hospitality-focused, multifamily-living lifestyle experience that we offer at Neutral,” Helbach said, adding that all tenants will get a free coffee each morning and access to a co-working space.
Previously covered by Wood Central, the 350-unit building will see more than large volumes of cross-laminated timber panels and glulam beams (arriving next year) built over an 8-storey post-tensioned concrete base – with Helbach stressing that timber is the perfect material for residential and build-to-rent projects, where returns far exceed the 2-3% premium for high-rise and 5% for low-rise construction.
And in updated renders, Edison is confident that the use of mass timber is instrumental in reducing embodied carbon by more than 54% and cutting energy use by 45%: “Using mass timber technology in conjunction with a low-carbon, high-performing envelope, Neutral Edison sets a new standard for sustainable building design and construction practices,” said Daniel Glaessl, Partner & Chief Product Officer at Neutral. “We couldn’t be more excited for the launch of this property with first-in-class offerings for healthy and intentional living.”
- To learn more about the project and how Neutral is navigating tariffs on building materials in building it’s projects, click here for Wood Central’s story from last month.
