Developer plans Milwaukee apartments
A Grafton firm that has developed hundreds of houses and other projects in Milwaukee’s suburbs plans to build apartments on the city’s near west side.
Herro Co. would develop the fourstory, 27-unit building on a city-owned lot at 541 N. 20th St., near Marquette University.
The Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee on Tuesday recommended selling the 9,900-square-foot lot for $25,000 to Herro Co. That sale also needs full council approval.
The building, which would have onebedroom apartments, would cost $3.47 million, company President Lew Herro told committee members.
Herro said his firm has developed around 250 homes in suburban subdivisions, as well as apartments and around 10 assisted living centers.
He said Herro Co. got involved in the Milwaukee housing market around eight years ago.
That’s when Securant Bank & Trust asked the firm to help manage 158 properties it had acquired during the recession. Herro Co. renovated the homes and found tenants and buyers for them.
“We met a lot of good people who wanted housing — decent housing,”
Herro said.
That led Herro and his partner, Dwight Clayton, to pursue the planned apartment building.
Herro told committee members that he and Clayton, who operates a trucking firm, are looking at other Milwaukee development sites, including one near the former Northridge Mall.
In other action, the committee recommended rezoning a largely vacant site at West Wisconsin Avenue and North 27th Street that could eventually be redeveloped into a 200,000square-foot state office building.
The $98.5 million project would replace an outdated nine-story state office building, at 819 N. 6th St., built in 1963.
It was part of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ 2019-21 construction budget proposal. But it was among the projects removed by Republican majorities in the Legislature who said the proposed spending levels were too high.
The budget included $4 million that was set aside just to buy the real estate for the future office building. Near West Side Partners Inc., a nonprofit community group that owns the site, has received a letter of intent from the state Department of Administration for buying the property.
However, the Legislature would need to approve construction funding for the office building. That wouldn’t happen until the 2021-23 construction budget, said Ald. Robert Bauman, a committee member whose district includes the site.
Meanwhile, the site would be cleared and cleaned up, said Keith Stanley, Near West Side Partners executive director.
And that could help developer Rick Wiegand obtain financing for his planned conversion of the nearby former Wisconsin Avenue School, 2708 W. Wisconsin Ave., into the 23-room Ambassador Suites hotel.