KENOSHA, Wis. — The August 2020 police shooting of Jacob Blake led viewers from all over the world to tune into this small lakefront city. Television screens filled with images of burning businesses and gun violence — yet another chapter in America’s long summer of protests kicked off by the murder of George Floyd nearly three months before. It was a painful time for Kenosha. Out of public view, the televised violence also imperiled what municipal leaders call a golden opportunity to resuscitate its once-industrial economy. Longtime Mayor John Antaramian had developed plans to help revitalize the city by planting new luxury homes and parks around the downtown’s picturesque harbor, and it wasn’t a pie-in-the-sky dream. Investors were lining up, ready to pour in capital. But Joe Chrnelich, the primary developer of the downtown revitalization effort, said a phone call early in the morning after the Blake shooting delivered a shock. He was a few days away from completing a financing deal that would kick-start the effort, but the investors backing the venture were rattled and told him they were pulling out. “Picture yourself on the beach and letting sand run through your fingers,” Chrnelich said. “That’s what it felt like to me, like we had $500M in our hands, and it went right through our fingers.” 
But other investors kept circling, ready to commit funds. The city announced in December that the downtown redevelopment was back on, at least the first phase, and the $100M Brindisi Towers, a planned luxury complex with 54 condos and up to 104 apartments, would soon fill in one of the…  Read the full story here. | 
