Two buildings with hundreds of apartments, a handful of rental townhomes, retail space and a coworking area are proposed in downtown Kenosha as the first phase of a broader redevelopment in the area moves ahead.

Developer Cobalt Smith is planning a 10-story tower with 188 apartments, ground-floor retail and coworking, and seven townhomes, as well as a five-story apartment building with 158 units.

The two buildings would be the first in a planned $450 million redevelopment of downtown Kenosha that could add a total of 1,000 new housing units as well as retail, office buildings and a hotel over the next decade.

Cobalt Smith is a partnership between Milwaukee-based Cobalt Partners and Fond du Lac-based general contractor C.D. Smith. The city last year approved a development agreement to allow the firms to oversee the downtown redevelopment.

The city’s Plan Commission on Thursday will consider a rezoning for the first two buildings in the redevelopment.

“We’re very excited about it,” Kenosha community development director Tim Casey said. “These things always seem to take longer than you want them to … but we’re looking forward to proceeding with the project.”

The proposed 10-story building would be kitty-corner from the city’s Harbor Park on the site of the existing LaMacchia Travel Agency at 618 55th St. The existing building would be razed and the new building would have an attached three-story parking garage.

Read more at the Milwaukee Business Journal.