Stritch kills Cousin’s Center project

Published: April 29, 2009
Tags: Archbishop Cousins Catholic Center, Cardinal Stritch University, St. Francis, Stark Investments Limited Partnership, TIF

Sean Ryan
sean.ryan@dailyreporter.com

Cardinal Stritch University and St. Francis are both stuck without a plan after the demise of a proposal to develop a campus on the Archbishop Cousins Catholic Center property in the city.

St. Francis is wondering what will happen to the vacant Cousin’s Center site, and Stritch does not know how it will meet with its need for more space.

The university announced Wednesday its Board of Trustees decided to kill the project because of the tough economic climate, said Joanne Williams, Cardinal Stritch vice president of public relations and marketing.

The university’s enrollment numbers are increasing, she said, and Stritch still plans to renovate its College of Education and Leadership building on the main campus straddling the Fox Point-Glendale border.

But Stritch does not have any expansion plans beyond that, she said.

“You always look and see what’s on the horizon,” Williams said. “Who knows what could come along?”

The university in July announced plans to buy the 44-acre Catholic Center to expand beyond Stritch’s landlocked Fox Point-Glendale campus. The university spent the next year developing plans to also buy a neighboring 86.5 acre parcel owned by We Energies and spend an estimated $150 million to build a new campus.

The university earlier this year decided not to buy the We Energies site, and Thursday will let expire its option to buy the Cousins Center from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

St. Francis is struggling to attract developments to the lakeside land around the Cousin’s Center, said Mayor Al Richards.

The city created a tax-incremental finance district in 2006 to pay for infrastructure improvements in the area. The TIF anticipated Mandel Group Inc., Milwaukee, would develop a mixed-use project on a site south of the Cousin’s Center, and Stark Investments Limited Partnership would build an office building in the district, Richards said. But neither project came to fruition, he said.

“Right now, the economy is the real problem and there’s nothing you can do about that,” he said.

The city is falling behind on paying off the debt from its $4.3 million TIF district because the area has not generated increased property taxes to pay off the debt, Richards said. The city still has 20 years to pay for the TIF district, he said. But it will be difficult to generate development in the area until the economy improves, he said.

“Even though somebody wants to do that, given the current economic climate, there’s no saying whether they can do that,” he said. “I’m just kind of down in the dumps right now.”

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St. Francis/University Expansion (PROJECT CANCELLED)

Project: Expand Cardinal Stritch University by Purchasing and Using the Cousins Center, St. Francis, Milwaukee County

Owner: Cardinal Stritch University, 6801 N. Yates Road, Glendale, WI 53209; (414) 410-4000

Scope: Cardinal Stritch University has announced that the option to purchase the Archdiocese property will expire on April 30, 2009. The university has decided to cancel plans to buy the site and expand educational facilities there due to the bad economy. Decisions on further expansion elsewhere will resurface at a later date.
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