After 25 years in business, Judge's Irish Pub closed in 2013 at 1431 E. North Ave. with news that a new bar, The Irish Genie, would appear in its place.
Despite the release of drawings of the new bar, the idea vanished and now the property is for sale, along with an adjacent single-family home at 2215 N. Cambridge Ave.
A sell sheet for the property says, "available bar/restaurant and single family home located on Milwaukee's East Side. Great redevelopment site for apartments or a limited service hotel."
The asking price for the bar is $975,000 and the house is listed at $100,000.
Realtor Josh Minkin, of Alpine Commercial Real Estate Services, sent out the listing via email, along with drawings made by Striegel Agacki Studio architects showing floor plans for a potential residential development that suggest that the current building, erected in 1909 as a Miller Brewing Co. tied house, would be demolished.
Minkin said today in an email that there is no interest from potential buyers yet and that the sale is "still in the marketing phase."
The drawings show 13 units per floor, for 52 units in a five-story structure or 65 units in a six-story building, plus one or two retail spaces fronting North Avenue and up to 55 parking spots at and/or below grade.
A typical residential floor would have 11,600 square feet, with 10,257 leasable square feet and 1,343 square feet of common space. The basic drawings, which include one- and two-bedroom units, as well as some 335-square foot "micro" units, show terraces on all but the micro apartments.
The building is currently vacant and what appears to be an older real estate listing suggests that some renovations were begun during the Judge's era, but never completed.
"The Judge's site has enormous potential as a small boutique development with river views/access," said Jim Plaisted, executive director of The East Side BID, today. "The views at the bluff are awesome, once the invasive growth is cut back. It's one of the best views in the City of the Milwaukee River bend/former dam."
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.
