St. Louis Park, Minn.-based MSP Real Estate Inc. plans to build a 75-unit apartment development at 14900 W. Library Lane in the City Center area of New Berlin.
MSP plans to build a three-story building with 75 apartments, 80 percent to be leased at market rates and 20 percent to be leased at “affordable rates.” The affordable rate units are included because the project will be financed with tax exempt bonds.
The market rate units will be “luxury” apartments that will have rents of $995-$1,100 for one-bedroom units and $1,250-$1,550 for two-bedroom units, said Jacob Klein, director of development for MSP. The “affordable” units will be one-bedroom units with rents of $678 and will be leased to tenants that meet income limits.
MSP is the developer that is building a four-unit 136-unit apartment complex in the City Center area. One of the four buildings is complete and the other three are still under construction. All but 15 units in that project were leased at “affordable” rates. The project was controversial because several area residents opposed development of an affordable housing project in City Center. The U.S. Department of Justice sued New Berlin for blocking the project, accusing city officials of racial discrimination. The city ad DOJ settled the lawsuit last year and the MSP project moved forward.
Despite the controversy, the project is already entirely leased and the demand for the market-rate units in the project convinced MSP to build a market-rate dominated project there, Klein said.
“It’s just geographically a good location. Convenient to (interstates) 94 and 43,” he said. “It was clear there was a strong demand for a luxury, class A apartment project in New Berlin.”
