A "ribbon-tying" ceremony was held Tuesday to celebrate the opening of the new home for Gestra Engineering, which moved from Oak Creek to 1626 W. Fond du Lac Ave. in Milwaukee’s central city. The company moved into a 6,485-square-foot former Department of Public Works building. The firm has 18 employees, including three recent hires from its new neighborhood, and it plans to hire more employees, offer internships to neighborhood youth and offer employee incentives to buy a home in the central city. The "ribbon-tying" ceremony was done to highlight the ties the company plans to make with its new neighborhood.
Last Thursday, a ground breaking ceremony was held for a mixed-use development on a vacant lot at the northwest corner of Teutonia Avenue and Center Street in Milwaukee’s central city. There, Maures Development Group LLC and Horizon Development Group Inc. plan to build a $5.1 million, 43,500-square-foot, mixed-use building with 24 apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail space. Some of the retail space will be occupied by the Handsome Barbershop. Some of the apartments will have market rate rents and some will be made available to families earning 50 to 60 percent of the county’s median income. The project received financing from Great Lakes Capital Fund, JPMorgan Chase and the City of Milwaukee, plus $4.1 million in affordable housing tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA).
