A major affordable housing development is nearing completion in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood.
Known as The Corliss, the project by Kenosha-based Bear Development began opening its first buildings this month, and when fully complete next year, will be the largest privately developed affordable housing project in Wisconsin history.
Located on a former industrial site along East Becher Street, The Corliss will ultimately include eight, five-story buildings with 576 apartment units, two of which are fully dedicated to senior housing.
As of late July, the first two buildings are 80% pre-leased, with Bear expecting them to be fully leased by the time they open.
All of the development’s units are set aside for households making less than 80% of the area median income, with most units set aside for those making below the 60% threshold. During the approval process, city officials noted that Bay View has some of the fastest-rising housing costs in the city resulting in some families and seniors being priced out of the neighborhood, which the addition of The Corliss could help mitigate.
Though The Corliss has grown into a landmark development, Bear Development didn’t originally intend for the project to be record-setting, according to project manager Nick Orthmann.
“We always knew this site was perfect for housing, it was just a matter of how much and in what form,” Orthmann said.
When Bear first proposed redeveloping the site in 2020, the plan included preserving existing structures from the 19th and early 20th centuries, which would have yielded around 300 housing units. The site was previously home to Filer & Stowell, a manufacturer of sawmill equipment that operated there until the 1960s.
“There were huge industrial buildings that went up and down the site, close to 300,000 square feet,” Orthmann said. “We were going to save them and do a historic rehab, but that proved too costly and too complicated. The structures were cool, but the more we got into it, the more we realized we wouldn’t want people living in them.”
Instead, the development team opted to raze the existing buildings and build new, almost doubling the unit count.
Designed by architecture firm Kahler Slater, cream city brick from the razed buildings was repurposed for the new structures as a nod to the past.
Financing for The Corliss combines Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and a tax increment financing district that contributed roughly $9 million in support. The city also provided an $835,000 Housing Trust Fund grant and a $1 million loan from the Redevelopment Authority’s Brownfield Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund. The total development cost is estimated to be around $200 million.
Amenities include fitness centers, indoor parking and indoor and outdoor community spaces. Central to the development’s layout is a public extension of the Kinnickinnic River Trail that bisects the site, linking Bay View with the Harbor District.
The Corliss is adding to an intersection that’s booming with housing. On a site immediately to the west, Milwaukee-based New Land Enterprises is contemplating a 500-unit workforce housing development, and, kitty-corner to that site, Michels Corp. in 2021 opened the 95-unit Tribute Apartments, which are market rate.
Meanwhile, Bear Development has become increasingly active in the neighborhoods south of downtown Milwaukee. In addition to The Corliss, construction is well underway on a 140-unit affordable housing project at 100 E. National Ave. The company has also proposed a 69-unit development at 1435 S. 1st St.
