A Milwaukee developer will get tax incremental financing incentives to turn a long vacant, quarter-acre lot on the edge of the Tosa Village into market-rate rental housing that includes four townhomes and 10 apartment units in two separate buildings.
Wauwatosa’s Common Council unanimously approved a TIF funding term sheet April 28 for a development agreement between JJHG3group LLC and the city for the parcel at 7746 Menomonee River Parkway, at the north corner of the parkway and Harmonee Avenue.
The city will provide an estimated $890,000 to developer JJHG3group from 2027 to 2043, the lifetime of the existing TIF District 11, via municipal revenue obligation payments. The financing will greenlight the plan for housing on a site that city leaders and staff have agreed is a unique and challenging place they’ve long sought development opportunities for.
One three-story building on the site will offer 10 one-bedroom apartment units. A second building toward the back of the site will offer four 2- and 3-bedroom townhomes and a garage for private parking for all tenants.
The townhomes would rent for around $4,800 a month and apartment rents would be between $2,000 and $2,400 a month, Jeffrey Hook, the president of JJHG3group, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 28.
When complete, the city and developer estimate the project’s estimated taxable value will be $5.2 million.
Hook and his partners on the project welcomed the challenge to create a thoughtful housing design to build on difficult sites like the lot at Menomonee River Parkway, he told the Journal Sentinel.
Hook is partnering on the project with local Wauwatosa firm Galbraith Carnahan Architects, the same group that previously eyed the vacant lot to build four 3,000-square-foot for-purchase luxury townhome condominiums.
The firm didn’t secure the buyers needed before construction as required by their contract with the city, so the plan was scrapped, but they continued mulling ideas to bring housing to the site, Joe Galbraith, partner at the firm, told the Journal Sentinel April 29.
Hook and Galbraith Carnahan Architects worked together to build the new “missing middle” apartment complex known as Union Green in West Allis.
A lot of what worked at Union Green, which includes 19 apartment units, could translate to the Wauwatosa project, Hook told the Journal Sentinel.
At a Financial Affairs Committee meeting April 14, city officials discussed the project at greater length before recommending it to the council in a 6-1 vote. Officials agreed on the need for townhomes and talked about how the lot has been somewhat notorious for attracting proposals that haven’t stuck due to its size.
The type of housing planned by JJHG3group and the proposal is the right fit for the lot, Wauwatosa Development Director Mark Hammond said at the April 14 meeting.
“I don’t think there’s any apartment building like this that’s been developed in Wauwatosa probably in the last 20 to 30 years,” Hammond said of the plan’s high density and mix of townhomes and small-form apartments.
Bridget Fogarty covers Brookfield, Wauwatosa and Elm Grove for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be contacted at bfogarty@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Apartments and townhomes planned for quarter-acre parcel in Wauwatosa
Reporting by Bridget Fogarty, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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