International district sprouts at 35th and National
Facade grants boost commercial growth
While efforts to redevelop several commercial corridors in Milwaukee have focused on luring relocations of existing enterprises, a "grow your own" approach is succeeding in one ethnically diverse neighborhood on the city’s south side.
A bevy of businesses along National Avenue near 35th Street are using façade grants to get to the next level of success.
Convincing the strip’s Asian business community to participate in the façade grant program was at first a challenge, according to one urban development expert who has been working with the business owners.
Nicole Robben has worked to ramp up commercial activity in the area as director of the Layton Boulevard West Neighbors (LBWN), a subsidiary of the School Sisters of St. Francis, which operates the Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center at 15th Street and Layton Boulevard.
Robben was hired away in January from LBWN by the Department of City Development. In her new role as a neighborhood development specialist, Robben will help nonprofit organizations, including her former employer, leverage city programs to spur redevelopment.
"We have a lot of Asian businesses and Hispanic businesses, and we are working with them to open up their storefronts," Robben said.
Ralph Fleege, owner of National Ice and Mitchell Novelties at 35th Street and National Avenue, agrees with Robben that the area’s diversity holds potential for redevelopment.
"This area probably has more ethnic diversity than any other area of the city," Fleege said. "Every nationality is represented in a 10-block area. But there are language barriers. Many of the individuals are untrusting of other ethnic people, and therefore they choose to shop within their own business acquaintances. This makes it difficult to get a cohesive response to an initiative."
In an attempt to draw in disparate ethnic groups, Robben held focus groups in both Spanish and Hmong. The focus groups, conducted by LBWN with the help of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, helped determine what type of technical support services the businesses desire.
The initial lack of engagement of various ethnic groups was reflected in the response to a direct-mail survey of neighborhood residents to determine the types of business local people would support.
"Most respondents were Caucasian," Robben said of the 500 people who returned the surveys to LBWN. "But this is a very diverse neighborhood."
But in early November of 2001, Robben recalls a breakthrough meeting with the Asian community.
"After spending a couple of years encouraging them to come to neighborhood meetings of business owners, they started to understand what redevelopment meant," Robben said.
Robben’s outreach and the spirit of entrepreneurial zeal emanating from National Avenue has resulted in seven businesses enlisting in the façade design process, including:
— National Food Mart, 3101 W. National Ave.
— Western Bilingual Employment Services, 3111 W. National Ave.
— Damage Control and Restoration, 3303 W. National Ave.
— Everything Under $20, 3505 W. National Ave.
— Moccasin Bar, 3749 W. National Ave.
— Golden Chicken corporate headquarters, 3810 W. National Ave.
— Family Insurance and Financial Services, 3521 W. National Ave.
Two other façade reconstruction projects already are completed, including Asian Best Video, 3109 W. National Ave., and Noodle House, 3433 W. National Ave.
"It all hit at the right time," May Lee, president of Family Insurance and Financial Services, said of the influx of Asian businesses to the façade program.
Lee said the commercial district centered at 35th and National was gaining the attention of the Asian community in Chicago.
"Businesses from Chicago are coming here," Lee said. "In Chicago, there are so many businesses, and houses are so expensive; the main tug these days is toward Milwaukee and National Avenue."
Apart from the appeal the southwest side neighborhood has to various ethnic groups, Asian and otherwise, the renaissance was leveraged by some crafty grantsmanship by Robben.
In August of 2002, Robbens landed a grant from the New York-based Local Initiative Support Corp. (LISC) to pay for facade designs for businesses along National Avenue. The following month, two architects were retained to work on façade renderings for National Avenue businesses.
According to Jim Shenkelberg, who was hired by LBWN to replace Robben (ironically enough from a position as an intern with DCD), the LISC grant was used to pay the entire cost of seven façade designs.
"We asked for it with the intention of hiring architects for our façade program," Shenkelberg said. "We got $7,000 for that purpose, and that went for seven renderings."
Shenkelberg said additional funds may become available for design in the future.
"It is something that has been successful for us so far, and in the future other people might try to do it in different parts of the city," Shenkelberg said. "If you are talking to a business owner about fixing up their building and they are not sure of what they could do or what it would cost, if you can present them with an idea, it can pique their interest."
Once the design is completed, business owners can receive a 50% matching grant from DCD for facade construction.
May, one of the recipients of the initial design grants, did not waste any time in starting construction, and is now waiting for her reimbursement check from the city.
"I wanted to get construction done before winter," May said.
Already, she is considering a larger sign that would be more visible from the street.
Brittney Xiong, proprietor of Western Bilingual Employment Services, looks forward to reconstruction of her cinderblock building’s facade. The transformation will be dramatic and will include the replacement of an overhead garage door with new windows.
Xiong feels the more professional appearance will be key for her business, which provides multilingual employees as translators — mostly for court proceedings and medical purposes.
Robben hopes various Asian and Hispanic cultures can combine to offer a culturally diverse entertainment and commercial district.
Already, Lee’s business is receiving enough business form Hispanics that she is thinking of hiring a Spanish-speaking employee. The city’s Hispanic population is heavily concentrated on the near south side, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin in July of 2002 purchased land at 1024 W. National Ave. as the possible location of its new headquarters.
To capitalize on the diversity of the area, LBWN plans to post neighborhood identity banners in late February, promoting the commercial strip as the "Silver City District — An InterNATIONAL Experience."
Xiong, Lee and the other business owners in the neighborhood hope in time to tie West National Avenue in with other entertainment and commercial districts, most notably Miller Park and potential commercial development in the adjacent Menomonee River Valley.
"That is everybody’s hope," Lee said. "This is perfect for the Asian Community. We can have a Chinatown in Milwaukee. But we can do it different than Chicago — we can be more mixed."
A Jan. 29 pronouncement by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker offered hope that development in the river valley could include the type of retail and service business mix that could help fuel further growth along West National Avenue.
While initial zoning for the portions of a redeveloped Menomonee Valley south of National Avenue near 35th Street for industrial land uses, Walker indicated that some hospitality-oriented businesses would be a good idea for the area.
Walker is encouraging Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle to set aside dollars currently paid to the state under Indian gaming compacts for redevelopment of the river valley to offset potentially diminished brownfields redevelopment funding from the state, due to budget shortfalls.
"The city doesn’t want that entire area turned into an entertainment corridor," Walker said. "But since at one end, we have Miller Park, I think (a hotel) would be beneficial to businesses that choose to come to that area."
Waukesha County
Mukwonago growing like kudzu
Village expands into Walworth County with new annexations
Even as annexation petitions for more than 1,600 acres languish in negotiations and in court, the Village of Mukwonago stands to grow by about 130 acres through other annexations petitions received in January.
The growth is in addition to other lands currently in various stages of the annexation process, including 400 acres being annexed from the Town of Vernon and an additional 1,200 acres across the Walworth County border in the Town of East Troy. Those parcels straddle State Highway 83 and Interstate 43 and will be zoned for commercial, corporate business and industrial land uses.
According to Mukwonago village administrator Bernard Kahl, one annexation petition arrived last month from a single land owner, asking the village to absorb 108 acres east of the Fox River.
Kahl said the annexation could be complete as early as February. The sliver of land, which runs from Highway ES along Evergreen Drive to I-43, jogs around the homes of some Town of Vernon property owners not interested in annexation, Kahl said.
Another landowner, the non-profit Friends of East Troy Railroad Museum, is asking the village to annex about 20 acres straddling the Walworth/Waukesha County line, Kahl said.
The organization’s secretary said it was unsure whether the Friends of East Troy Railroad Museum, which runs a visitor attraction featuring trolley rides, a dinner train cruise and a museum, would attempt to develop the property itself or would seek proposals from developers.
"We have really kicked around both options," secretary Bernard Van Dinter said. "Being a not-for-profit, we are very dependent on donations from the outside, and annexation makes that portion of our assets much more valuable and flexible for development. Whether we develop it or someone else develops it, it makes it easier than having part of it in one county and the rest in another. I think the property has some definite commercial potential."
The parcel is at the northwest corner of the intersection of highways J and ES.
"We own a parcel on which we have a trolley car storage barn plus a couple of small buildings we rent out to small businesses," Van Dinter said. "Part of the land is in Walworth, part (is) in Waukesha County. We are petitioning to transfer the portion currently in Walworth – to combine that together into Waukesha County and the village of Mukwonago."
Washington County
West Bend braces for loss of manufacturing plant
Planners hope to launch new downtown TIF
The city of West Bend is bracing for the imminent closure of the West Bend Co. manufacturing facilities by Regal Ware Inc., the company that bought the home appliance manufacturing company from Illinois Toolworks in October 2002.
At press time, Regal Ware president Jeff Reigle had not announced whether he would close the West Bend facilities he had just purchased or move manufacturing operations there from his facility in Kewaskum.
Community development planner Julie Licht said the city is expecting to go ahead with plans made before the purchase for commercial and residential redevelopment of the 20-acre site, which has 900,000 square feet under roof.
"We have known for a while that they were taking out their facilities," Licht said. "We did take the initiative with HNTB and Plunkett Raysich Architects to undertake a preliminary plan for the site. I think the site is most likely not going to be filled with any manufacturing. We have it pegged for redevelopment — residential and maybe some office."
Already, the city has in place a tax incremental financing district to pay for the improvements necessary to make an adjacent industrial area in the downtown attractive to developers for residential redevelopment. Another overlapping downtown TIF is in the works to encompass an adjacent parcel straddling the Milwaukee River.
The city’s plan commission was expected to hold a public hearing on the formation of a new TIF district on Feb. 4, and Licht said the new district could be in place by March.
The choice to add an overlapping TIF rather than expand the existing TIF was made to allow the city more time before the TIF would have to be closed.
The city would expect to see mixed uses for the combined TIF districts, including the city’s first condominium hotel, a 60-unit boutique hotel in which individual rooms are owned by community members but available the majority of the time as guest rooms.
"This is kind of a different concept — a condo hotel," Licht said. "Because it would be community-owned, it would be more stable."
Other developments pegged for the redevelopment area include a 1,200-capacity conference center, according to Licht, who added that The Kubala-Washatko Architects of Cedarburg has been retained to develop a concept design for the center on behalf of a yet-to-be-named developer.
Walworth County
Highway 120 bypass opens new avenues in Lake Geneva
Developers gobbling up parcels along new highway
A long-anticipated bypass of State Highway 120 around the city of Lake Geneva will do more than alleviate some of the tourist traffic in the resort town.
A bypass also will open up lands to the south of the city to development and increase the value of business parkland along the new highway.
Other lands along the new route have been snapped up by a local development agency in anticipation of the new highway.
Under construction since September of 2002, the bypass was proposed to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) by the City of Lake Geneva more than 20 years ago, according to DOT project manager Doug Kane.
"The city is the one that requested the project and has been trying to get it into our program here for 20 years," Kane said. "The project finally got on our program in 1991."
The rerouting of the highway would separate Highway 120 from Highway 50 in the city’s downtown, routing it south along State Highway 12 and Edwards Boulevard.
The rerouting will involve construction of 4.5 miles of four-lane divided roadway with raised median from Edwards Boulevard to Highway H.
"South of H, it will narrow down to a rural two-lane section for the rest of the route," Kane said. "That’s about 2.2 miles for each section – urban and rural."
The new route will take the highway along the western border of the Lake Geneva Business Park, a 94-acre development with 40 acres still available. According to Brian Pollard, president of Lake Geneva-based developer Fairwyn Development, the rerouting will be beneficial for the company’s plans for a leased commercial building on land that will be a stone’s throw from the new Highway 120.
"We are looking at doing another 10,000-square-foot building on 2 acres," Pollard said. "We are talking to a couple of businesses and hope to be starting construction in the next 12 to18 months. We want to get some key tenants before we put up the building."
In May 2002, Pollard’s firm finished a 10,00-square-foot, four-tenant building in the park that is now fully leased.
"All of the space available in the business park is fully leased," Pollard said, indicating that the presence of a state highway would only improve an already strong location.
"As I look at it, I would not want to have a 10,000-square-foot building on spec right now," Pollard said. "But Lake Geneva is an area that is growing. If I had one or two tenants, I would have no problem going forward."
The Geneva Lake Development Corp. is equally bullish on the area – enough so that the nonprofit has been snapping up land straddling the new highway route for the last five years.
"The two sites we own are adjacent to each other – a total of 35 acres, including six acres on the west side of the highway," executive director Joe Cardiff said. "At this point, there have been no plans for development of the property. There is nothing cast in stone at this point. … Right now, it is zoned for industry, but it has been that way for some years. We don’t believe it is the most effective way to use that land. But our board feels they ought to do something with that property that would be a true asset to the city."
Sheboygan County
Construction of waterpark resort to begin this spring
Former coal property to feature 180-suite complex
More than a year after the City of Sheboygan purchased a 42-acre tract at the mouth of the Sheboygan River, work is beginning to turn the lakeside property from a blighted eyesore to a resort destination.
The city purchased the land in October 2001 for $2 million. To transform the site from a dumping ground into a showplace, the city won federal and state grant money, raised donations in the community and solicited proposals from developers interested in sinking $10 million into the project.
According to Eric Lund, executive vice president of the Great Lakes Cos., a Madison-based developer that submitted the winning proposal to redevelop the site, construction on a resort hotel, convention center and indoor water park could begin this spring.
Already, work has begun to rehabilitate the shoring along the property’s frontage with the Sheboygan River. (See related article in the Blueprints section of this issue of SBT).
"We hope to begin this spring and open by spring of 2004, a few months prior to the PGA coming to Kohler," Lund said.
The development that will rise from the property that had formerly been used to store coal and salt would include a 180-suite resort, 62 condominiums and a 33,000-square-foot indoor water park.
A 20,000-square-foot convention center would feature a 10,000-square-foot ballroom that will accommodate up to 1,000 people.
Great Lakes Cos. has developed other resort hotels with waterparks, and Lund said that the hotel planned for the site will have some things in common with the firm’s other projects, but will differ in some design appointments.
"This will be similar to the Great Wolf Lodge we own in the Wisconsin Dells, except this will be designed not only toward families but toward meeting planners," Lund said. "There will be a different skin on it. This one will be more of a nautical-themed resort. Kind of like The Breakers in West Palm Beach, Fla."
Turning the former C. Reiss Coal site around will take more than the city’s $2 million and another $10 million from the Great Lakes Cos.
To increase the land’s assessed value to a projected $40 million, the city also required about $4.5 million in grants and loans from state, federal and local sources, ranging from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Grants include a $1.1 million brownfields grant from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, $500,000 from the HUD Economic Development Initiative, a $135,000 DNR stewardship grant through the Urban Rivers Grant Program, $162,000 from the Department of Administration’s Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and a $2.4 million interest-free loan from the DNR.
Kenosha County
Abandoned factory site sparks debate
Residents want site to become new park
While the shuttering of the Macwhyte wire rope plant was a blow to Kenosha in 1999, city officials and residents disagree about what should become of the contaminated site.
The vacant factory site is now owned by St. Joseph, Mo.-based Wire Rope of America Inc.
Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian is involved in preliminary talks with the site’s owners regarding the possibility of redevelopment, ostensibly for some type of commercial use.
However, the alderman representing the City of Kenosha’s 1st District – and many of his constituents – would rather see a park on the 27-acre site.
Regardless of the ultimate new use of the land, the city will need to invest substantial resources to raze the existing structures and remediate the site, which has been in industrial use since 1912.
During its years of industrial operation, the property produced more than wire rope – it produced jobs. However, according to the Alderman Eric Haugaard, his constituents are not necessarily interested in seeing the land redeveloped for commercial or industrial use.
"We have industrial parks that we promote as industrial," Haugaard said. "Certain things don’t fit into a neighborhood. Certainly people don’t want to see multifamily go up in this neighborhood, either."
Haugaard indicated that his constituents would like to see the aging facility demolished, recalling an incident last year in which a neighborhood boy was severely injured while playing on an electrical transformer at the site.
Other concerns include the return to public use of a stretch of 14th Avenue that runs through the property.
"The road is in severe disrepair," Haugaard said. "But it is not our road to take back at this time. A lot of the traffic that road was used for was pushed west, and people would like to get access to the street once again. The concerns I have had from people involve when we going to get that road back."
While a neighborhood park may be a desirable commodity for district residents, the cost of redeveloping the property may be considerable, necessitating some opportunity to sell the property for development.
In the 1990s, Macwhyte and the steel wire rope industry fell victim to cutthroat competition from overseas, despite antidumping orders from the US Department of Commerce against Mexico, Japan and China.
Wire Rope of America purchased the assets of Macwhyte, but shuttered the outdated Kenosha plant in favor of its more modern facilities in Sedalia, Mo.
Some concerns of Macwhyte’s new parent company had with the Kenosha plant may have been environmental in nature. The wire rope manufacturer had once been listed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as one of the top generators of toxic waste in the state.
Soils on the site may require remediation.
In the demolition of another Kenosha industrial site – the former Outokumpu Copper plant at 1420 63rd St. – the wooden floors had to be pulled up and disposed of according to federal regulation due to arsenic contamination.
According to a Roy Scharrer, president of Envirodog LLC, a Germantown-based environmental remediation facilitator, the primary likely contaminant at the Macwhyte facility will be pickling liquor.
"A lot of steel fabrication facilities have a pickle liquor which is not like a plating solution, but it is more like a washing solution they use to brighten up the steel," Scharrer said. "It consists of different types of polishing compounds. Depending on how large-scale it was, and if you were handling virgin steel, they could have used quite a bit of it."
Waste generation at Macwhyte was indeed large scale. In 1991, the company generated 3,616 tons of waste toxic enough to be regulated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act – making it the 10th-largest generator of toxic waste in Wisconsin that year.
According to the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, Macwhyte discharged more than 2.1 million pounds of toxic waste to the city’s wastewater treatment plant between 1990 and 1994.
Racine County
Jacobsen/Textron plant targeted for more manufacturing
Job creation will be Racine’s focus
The City of Racine plans to begin demolition of the buildings at the former Jacobsen/Textron Turf Care plant at 1721 Packard Ave. on the city’s south side later this year.
The city was expected to issue requests for proposals by the end of January for a phase II environmental assessment at the site.
A phase I assessment had been ordered prior to the proposed sale of the 480,000-square-foot facility to C. Coakley Relocation Systems, a Milwaukee-based moving company, in December 2001.
However, rather than allow the company to use the site for storage and lease space, the city opted instead in August 2002 to acquire and redevelop the 14-acre site.
According to Brian O’Connell, city planning director, the city expects to divide the site into lots and will require the new occupants to be engaged in job-producing industries.
Demolition of the existing buildings on the site should take place this year, and sites could be back on the market in early 2004, according to O’Connell.
"We are thinking that could be three or four sites," O’Connell said. "Distribution and warehousing is not what we are interested in. A number of other manufacturing sites in the city have been turned into dead storage. We are interested in this being a real workplace. Some distribution and assembly is pretty well-paying these days. The main thing is that there would have to be some active component or job creation.
"There is flexibility," O’Connell said. "One of the things we have not decided on is whether we will partner with an industrial developer."
In the meantime, the city is concentrating on determining how much the redevelopment process will cost at the site, which has been used for manufacturing purposes for more than 100 years.
"Our biggest challenge in this first year has been to get control of the property and satisfy environmental requirements," O’Connell said. "We have a phase I assessment, and we expect we will have to do some remediation. The site is almost entirely under roof or under pavement. We will have to get some holes in the pavement in order to find out what we are dealing with."
A long-awaited sewer service agreement between the city and neighboring community will deliver funds to help pay for the project. The agreement will end a longstanding sewer moratorium in Racine County east of Interstate 94 by allowing the city to expand its wastewater treatment plant.
A provision of the agreement requires that some of the revenue paid to the city be targeted for tax base-enhancing redevelopment efforts.
While sewer funds may pay a portion of the tab, the city also plans to create a tax incremental financing district to pay for some required infrastructure improvements.
"We are in the process of creating a TIF," O’Connell said. "The revenue-sharing helps, but it isn’t able to do everything. There may be some upgrades to the existing infrastructure – sewer, water, storm sewer, power and good street access."
The City of Racine plans to begin demolition of the buildings at the former Jacobsen/Textron Turf Care plant at 1721 Packard Ave. on the city’s south side later this year.
The city was expected to issue requests for proposals by the end of January for a phase II environmental assessment at the site.
A phase I assessment had been ordered prior to the proposed sale of the 480,000-square-foot facility to C. Coakley Relocation Systems, a Milwaukee-based moving company, in December 2001.
However, rather than allow the company to use the site for storage and lease space, the city opted instead in August 2002 to acquire and redevelop the 14-acre site.
According to Brian O’Connell, city planning director, the city expects to divide the site into lots and will require the new occupants to be engaged in job-producing industries.
Demolition of the existing buildings on the site should take place this year, and sites could be back on the market in early 2004, according to O’Connell.
"We are thinking that could be three or four sites," O’Connell said. "Distribution and warehousing is not what we are interested in. A number of other manufacturing sites in the city have been turned into dead storage. We are interested in this being a real workplace. Some distribution and assembly is pretty well-paying these days. The main thing is that there would have to be some active component or job creation.
"There is flexibility," O’Connell said. "One of the things we have not decided on is whether we will partner with an industrial developer."
In the meantime, the city is concentrating on determining how much the redevelopment process will cost at the site, which has been used for manufacturing purposes for more than 100 years.
"Our biggest challenge in this first year has been to get control of the property and satisfy environmental requirements," O’Connell said. "We have a phase I assessment, and we expect we will have to do some remediation. The site is almost entirely under roof or under pavement. We will have to get some holes in the pavement in order to find out what we are dealing with."
A long-awaited sewer service agreement between the city and neighboring community will deliver funds to help pay for the project. The agreement will end a longstanding sewer moratorium in Racine County east of Interstate 94 by allowing the city to expand its wastewater treatment plant.
A provision of the agreement requires that some of the revenue paid to the city be targeted for tax base-enhancing redevelopment efforts.
While sewer funds may pay a portion of the tab, the city also plans to create a tax incremental financing district to pay for some required infrastructure improvements.
"We are in the process of creating a TIF," O’Connell said. "The revenue-sharing helps, but it isn’t able to do everything. There may be some upgrades to the existing infrastructure – sewer, water, storm sewer, power and good street access."
Ozaukee County
Mequon poised to grow when economy turns
Instead of waiting for the economy to improve, the City of Mequon is proactively laying the groundwork for two significant commercial real estate development projects.
The city is continuing with its ambitious plan to create what essentially will be a new downtown with its neighbor, the Village of Thiensville.
The two municipalities plan to form a joint committee to advance the project, which is tentatively known as the City of Mequon and Village of Thiensville Town Center.
"Things are moving along, but when you’re hit square in the face with recessionary times and a down stock market, they take some time," said Brad Steinke, Mequon’s director of community development.
The Mequon/Thiensville project is intended to attract as much as $37 million in private development, including mixed uses, a riverwalk, upscale townhouses, new streetscaping, small retail shops, office buildings, a brew pub, an amphitheater, a farmer’s market and a botanical garden.
The targeted 200-acre downtown area would span Cedarburg Road and the Milwaukee River in downtown Mequon, and head north along Green Bay Road into Thiensville.
The location will be key to attracting developers and tenants for the project, which will take advantage of the scenic banks of the Milwaukee River as it meanders through the two Ozaukee County communities.
The entire project could take up to a decade to complete, Steinke said.
However, the city has more immediate goals for its expansion of the Mequon Business Park.
The city has created a tax incremental financing district to finance the development of 100 acres to expand the park, located northeast of Wauwatosa Road and Donges Bay Road.
The expansion would be west of the park’s existing 130 acres.
The expansion could attract $26 million in new development, including high-quality office, research and development and light industrial buildings, Steinke said.
The city is partnering with NAI MLG Commercial of Brookfield to market and develop the expansion at a cost of about $3 million to $4 million, he said.
"You go out there today, and all you’re going to see is corn," Steinke said. "But we hope that we’ve hit the basement of the economic cycle and that as we develop the business park, everything will come together. That would be nice."
The engineering work is nearly complete at the expansion site.
Already, one business is under contract to locate in an office and light industrial building to be constructed on about four acres of the site, according to Andy Bruce of NAI MLG. He declined to identify the prospective tenant.
Feb. 7, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
