Wisconsin immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, Inc. plans to purchase the former Forest Home Library building from the city to convert it into its new Milwaukee office.
The city has set a purchase price of $450,000 for the former library branch, a one-story,14,500-square-foot building at 1432 W. Forest Home Ave. in Milwaukee’s Historic Mitchell Street neighborhood, according to city plan commission documents. The city offered the property for sale through a request for proposals that ended Aug. 30.
The move will allow Voces de la Frontera, which rents its current office at 1027 S. 5th St. in Walker’s Point, to expand its services, the plans said. The organization would invest about $100,000 in building renovations, according to the plans. It plans to maintain the building’s current exterior.
The organization will also lease two small office spaces within the building. Christopher & De León Law Office and Aurora Walker’s Point Community Clinic have each submitted letters of interest to lease space, the plans said.
The former Forest Home Library branch closed in 2017. It was replaced by the new Mitchell Street Branch, which is part of a mixed-use development at 906 W. Historic Mitchell St.
The city’s plan commission will consider the building sale on Oct. 22.
Representatives with Voces de la Frontera declined on Thursday to provide more details regarding the plans.
