The City of Milwaukee is on schedule to issue requests for proposals for the 58-acre former Northridge Mall site this fall, but its redevelopment consultant says that the city needs to amend its development processes and remain realistic if it wants to attract development to the site that has largely been forgotten about by the investment community.
City officials, together with their consultants at
Baker Tilly and
Graef, met with residents of the far north side Wednesday evening to "talk about one of our most favorite topics, Northridge Mall," as local Ald.
Larresa Taylor put it. The gathering served as the first community planning meeting for the long-anticipated redevelopment of the property at North 76th Street and W. Brown Deer Road.
"There's an old adage that what you do for the community, if you don't do it with the community, you do it to the community, and that is not the lane that (the Department of City Development) ever wants to be in," DCD commissioner Lafayette Crump said.
Baker Tilly says private sector could be hesitant
The city has engaged Milwaukee-based engineering, planning and design firm Graef and London-based consulting and accounting firm Baker Tilly to complete a market analysis for the redevelopment of the former Northridge site. So far, Baker Tilly has interviewed 15 developers including from local, regional and national firms, according to
Jolena Presti, managing director of the company's Milwaukee office.
Presti said that since there's been so much market stagnation in the area — mostly due to Northridge's blighting shadow — a new market needs to be created in the planning process. That also means that there needs to be a catalytic development on the site to kick things off.
"The private market is really waiting to see other successful development, and that's key, that we see something, a spark, a catalyst that will incite other development to occur in the greater area," Presti said. "Developers are watching nearby projects like
Cudahy Farms and industrial development at 124th Street (and West Brown Deer Road)."
The redevelopment effort is also occurring at a time when nearby suburbs like Menomonee Falls and Brown Deer have generally become a more attractive alternative to developing in the city of Milwaukee.
"That's due to higher sales and property taxes in Milwaukee, and the lengthy permitting and approval process is also seen as a negative," Presti said. "So these are just hurdles or issues that we'll have to overcome as we advance redevelopment."
Baker Tilly and DCD emphasized that the property will be the largest site available for development in the city of Milwaukee, with hundreds of acres of underutilized land around the site, which represents a unique opportunity for the private sector.
"Given the prominence of this site, we're really hopeful that we're going to receive multiple proposals to work with here, but it's important that we get this right" Crump said.
City on track to issue RFPs this fall
The city has not yet come up with a master plan for the site as it still is focusing on community engagement at this time, officials said, so far engaging hundreds of residents.
Long-discussed development options are still viable options:
- An industrial-based project to expand the nearby Milwaukee Land Bank business park is considered a possible use for the site, though speculative development is less attractive at this site due to its distance from freeways.
- At the other end of the development spectrum is a mixed-use neighborhood with a variety of housing options, support services, retail and public amenities.
This spring, the DCD plans to draft an initial development framework and design scenarios, with another community open house this summer. That will be followed by finalizing a development framework with either one or multiple RFPs being published in the fall.
Kristian Vaughn, manager of public sector advisory for Baker Tilly Milwaukee, recommended the city come up with a vision for the property and be ready to execute it, being flexible and realistic throughout the process.
"The City of Milwaukee does have to change its processes for this site," Vaughn said. "It needs to move more quickly when somebody proposes something, because people are going to look at those approval timelines and say, 'That's going to take me too long. I don't want to do it. I'm going to walk away.' So, the city has to be very purposeful and intentional when a proposal comes in to act quickly."
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