In September the Milwaukee Department of City Development issued a request for proposals to redevelop the shuttered Garfield Avenue School and some adjacent property on 4th Street and North Avenue, including the building that once housed the America's Black Holocaust Museum.
Details of the RFP can be read here. At the same time, DCD staffers led tours of the building and a couple weeks later, the old 5th Street School, just north of Center Street, for which an RFP was also issued.
Yesterday, the DCD team reviewing the three proposals that were submitted – by Gorman and Co., Maures/Common Bond and Brinshore – decided against making a recommendation.
"We needed additional information that will help in making a recommendation," said Rhonda Manuel, the DCD's neighborhoods and business development manager. "We have requested the additional information, with a due date on Dec. 16. The final review take place Wednesday, Dec. 17."
Gorman and Co., based in Oregon, Wis., recently redeveloped the former Jackie Robinson/Peckham Middle School into senior housing. Maures/Common Bond is working to redevelop the former Dover Street School into teacher housing and was just announced as the developer of a new mixed use library on the site of the Mill Road branch.
In related news, MPS has hinted this week that it will turn over a few more buildings to the city to be sold, including the former Wheatley (20th Street School), 2442 N. 20th St., Douglass, 3409 N. 37th St., and 37th Street, 1715 N. 37th St., Schools. Carleton, 4116 W. Silver Spring Dr., has already been transferred and the DCD is reportedly discussing setting up walk-throughs and an RFP.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
