The former Albright mansion property in Shorewood remains empty, 5 years after demolition

For the fifth year in a row, the trees around the 2.5-acre lot where a historic Shorewood mansion once overlooked Lake Michigan have shed their leaves and regrown them on empty land.

Since former Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele demolished the Alexander Eschweiler-designed mansion at 3534 N. Lake Drive in Shorewood in 2019 before he sold it in 2022, several efforts to rebuild there have fallen through.

The demolition sparked community outcry and raised questions about whether it could have been prevented with more robust historical preservation ordinances.

Meanwhile, the Village of Shorewood has missed out on thousands of dollars in property taxes throughout the last five years of nothingness at the lot, Shorewood's Planning and Development Director Bart Griepentrog said.

Before the mansion was demolished, property taxes had reached a net total of $70,127.44 in 2019, according to county real estate tax records. Once it was demolished, that figure dropped to $16,265.33 in 2020, a number that only continued to dwindle in succeeding years.

The current owner is also delinquent on 2022 and 2023 property taxes a total of $19,134.54, according to the Milwaukee County Treasurer's Office.

That current owner is Frank Crivello, chairman and founder of the Milwaukee-based commercial real estate firm Phoenix Investors, according to 2024 filings with Wisconsin's Department of Financial Institutions.

In mid-April, Crivello made moves to prepare the property for construction, obtaining a permit from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to stabilize the bluff, according to emails notifying Shorewood village staff of the permit's approval.

Four attempts to reach Crivello over the phone and one over email were unsuccessful in obtaining a response to questions about plans for the historic property.

Northworks, the Chicago-based architecture firm contracted by Crivello to design a home for the property in 2022, said they were unable to comment due to the privacy of their clients.

While often described as historic, the Eschweiler mansion Abele demolished in 2019 was not officially listed with the National Register for Historic Places or the National Historic Landmarks Program, meaning it lacked protections against demolition that other important buildings have.

Since the home's demolition, village officials and advocates have embraced the issue of historic preservation to prevent what happened to the Albright from happening elsewhere, Griepentrog said.

What do we know about Crivello's plans for 3534 N. Lake Drive?

Because efforts to reach Crivello have been unsuccessful, not much is known about Crivello's plans for the property.

We do know that on April 15, Crivello obtained approval from the state DNR to "install a coastal revetment along 200 feet of shoreline, with fill of 2,525 square feet below the ordinary high water mark, and grading of the bluff," according to the permit.

Village staff were copied on an April 15 email from the DNR to Crivello, informing him the department had approved his permit.

For Griepentrog, it was the first time since 2022 that he had heard of plans for the lot, and he was taken by surprise.

"I don't know where this was coming from," Griepentrog said. "This was completely out of left field for us. I had never even seen these plans before."

It had been a year and a half since the village's Design Review Board approved Crivello's proposal to build a stucco 6,620-square-foot single-family residence on the property, according to the board's Dec. 1, 2022, meeting minutes.

And four months had passed since the board's approval for that house, which included a four-car garage and a 630-square-foot pool house, expired.

Griepentrog said village staff reached out to Northworks toward the end of 2023 to remind them approval for the plans would expire at the end of the year if they didn't obtain building permits.

At the time, Northworks told Griepentrog they weren't ready to pursue the permits, he said.

Crivello will eventually need to obtain local permitting from the village before embarking on any work, including stabilizing the bluff, Griepentrog said.

From Eschweiler to Albright to Hambrook to Abele to Crivello

Built in 1937, the nearly 10,000-square-foot mansion that once occupied the land was designed by noted architect Alexander Eschweiler and had been known as the Albright House until Abele demolished it in 2019.

Abele and then-fiancée, former Milwaukee lobbyist Jennifer Gonda, had purchased the property in 2018 for $2.6 million and planned to replace the mansion with their own, according to Journal Sentinel reporting at the time.

They razed the mansion about a month after receiving a demolition permit from the village, blindsiding the previous owners George W. and J. Ann Hambrook who had been left in the dark about demolition plans at the time they sold the house.

The Hambrooks had lived in the home for 33 years and pushed back against the demolition, along with other residents who sought to preserve it. A petition circulating at the time garnered more than 1,000 signatures.

Two years elapsed after the demolition, and Abele seemingly lost interest in the property. Even as he renovated a different house in the city, the Shorewood lot remained vacant, showing no signs of construction.

In February 2022, he sold the property for $2 million to Crivello, according to state real estate records. At the time, Crivello's use of LLCs as registered agents shrouded the identity of the new owner.

More historic architecture preservation efforts are on Shorewood's horizon

The teardown of the Albright mansion was an impetus for renewed efforts to preserve historic architecture in the village.

At a board meeting held during the demolition, each village trustee listed the top five initiatives they hoped to prioritize in 2020. Of the six trustees present, five included historic preservation on their lists, according to meeting minutes from July 1, 2019.

In the last five years, the village has held educational sessions, commissioned a survey, and worked with students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop a strategy for preserving historical buildings.

On April 15, the village's Community and Business Relations Committee recommended the board approve a historic preservation initiative that would offer more education sessions on historic preservation in Shorewood throughout the first quarter of 2025.

It is not yet known which upcoming board meeting will include action on the initiative. An agenda has not yet been posted for the next meeting.

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What's the status of the former Albright mansion property in Shorewood?