Saint John’s on the Lake has successfully sold $83 million in tax free municipal bonds for its planned 21-story, 88-unit expansion project.
Saint John’s on the Lake, a senior apartment complex at 1840 N. Prospect Ave. on Milwaukee’s east side, has successfully sold $83 million in tax free municipal bonds for its planned 21-story, 88-unit expansion project, spokesman Rick Romano told BizTimes Milwaukee.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the project will be held on Oct. 15, Romano said, the same day that the financing package will close.
“We think this is a pretty extraordinary accomplishment in a tough economic climate,” Romano said. “We’re very excited for ourselves, but also for the community. There are going to be 150 to 200 workers on this construction project.”
Pewaukee-based VJS Construction Services is the general contractor for the project.
The tax free municipal bonds were made available through the Wisconsin Health and Educational Facilities Authority. Saint John’s hired Ziegler Wealth Management, a division of B.C. Ziegler and Company, to handle the bond sale.
Saint John’s executives decided to sell bonds for the project when they determined that was a better option for them than getting financing from a bank. Bank financing for major real estate developments has been extremely hard to obtain since the U.S. financial market meltdown last year.
So far about 75 percent of the 88 apartment units in the planned expansion have been reserved.
Construction for the expansion project is expected to be complete in mid-2011.
