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Work has suddenly halted on the Neutral Edison, a 31-storey MTC tower in Milwaukee that was to have been the tallest wood structure in the world.

The project broke ground with great fanfare this past June, with The Neutral Project as the lead developer. Although designed by Neutral’s in-house team, Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture is named as the firm responsible for the design of the specific building. Vancouver-based Michael Green Architecture was involved earlier in the broader master plan for The Edison project.

The Edison project was scheduled to be completed by 2027. Contractor C.D. Smith ��������ion had already installed a tower crane and partially completed the foundation work. It was to contain 378 residential units and approximately 7,200 square feet of retail space. Neutral estimated the use of  would reduce the building’s  footprint by 54 per cent while also cutting operational carbon and energy use by 45 per cent.

Tariffs were cited as a contributing factor for the work stoppage by Neutral CEO Nate Helbachl in a t carried by the .

���𳦱�Գ��� and broader inflation have materially increased key input hard costs. During this pause, Neutral is working with C.D. Smith ��������ion on a comprehensive cost-reduction and value-engineering process. While an exact timeline to resume vertical construction has not yet been determined, Neutral intends to proceed once the value-engineering process is complete.”

Milwaukee has become a hub of tall MTC construction. The city already boasts what is currently the tallest MTC tower in the world, the 25-storey Ascent MKE luxury apartment building.

As reported in October 2024, Neutral also won an earlier RFP to construct a three-phase, $700 million development on a city-owned, 2.45-acre site, also based on a design originally proposed by Michael Green Architecture.

Plans called for a multi-phase, 1.2-million-square-foot redevelopment scheme surrounding Milwaukee’s Marcus Center for the Performing Arts and on the site of an existing parking garage property. Initial plans envision 750 residential units, 190,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail space, 300 hotel rooms, parking spaces and a collection of vibrant public plazas and walkways. The final phase was to feature what would then become the world’s tallest MTC tower at 55 storeys.

Exclusive negotiations had been underway to allow The Neutral Project time to secure financing, finalize the overall scope and ultimately to secure tenants.

However, a halt in construction of the Neutral Edison comes as a blow. Its future prospects are under discussion.

Milwaukee Alderman Robert Bauman was quoted saying, “We could end up with a smaller building, different façade, different amenities and a different product that cuts the cost.”

Bauman had been skeptical of the approved three phase project for some time, and has indicated a preference to reissue the RFPs and possibly break the larger land parcel into three parts.“People will kind of promise you anything upfront to get their hands on the land and then circumstances change, maybe beyond their control, and then we go to try to claw the land back and ‘Oh sorry, we’re going to keep it.’ So I’m very leery of phased deals.”

Neutral is cautiously hopeful the financial challenges facing the project can be resolved through its discussions with C.D. Smith ��������ion.

“Pausing to value-engineer is a difficult but prudent step to safeguard the long-term success of 1005 N. Edison,” Helbach. “Our focus remains on delivering a resilient, exceptional building for Milwaukee.”

“��������ion input prices increased at a rapid pace for the third consecutive month in March and have now risen at a 9.7 per cent annualized rate through the first quarter of 2025,” said Associated Builders and Contractors chief economist Anirban Basu in a .

Tariffs are beginning to impact MTC projects in the United States. Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on wood from Canada are part of a long-standing dispute between the two countries concerning the timber harvested from Canadian public lands. Nearly 25 per cent of wood products used in the United States are imported from Canada.

Although some concrete and steel is involved in the Edison project, the tariff sensitivity could possibly be connected to imported mass timber components. have trended downwards from their peak in 2021, while have stabilized over this period.  

However, lumber and wood products have increased in cost by over 27 per cent since 2020. The cost of (CLT) per square foot spiked to a 180 per cent premium to standard lumber per board foot during 2023. The recent increases in countervailing tariffs on Canadian lumber, will likely impact MTC project costs even more in the future.

According to WoodWorks , 2,524 multi-family, commercial or institutional mass timber projects were in progress or built as of June 2025. Whether tariffs on imported wood and CLT from Canada affects the viability of projects currently in the planning stage will become clearer in the near future.

John Bleasby is a freelance writer. Send comments and Climate and ��������ion column ideas to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.