City Campus plan gets early OK

Supervisor John Weishan Jr. shared the enthusiasm Wednesday over Milwaukee County closing in on selling its City Campus but warned his colleagues not to succumb to a fire sale fever.

The discussion over selling properties stems from a 2013 consultant’s report by Milwaukee-based real estate firm CBRE Inc. that found the county could save as much as $142 million if it sold or demolished several buildings. But Weishan said he is worried that the momentum from one sale will lead county officials to rush into unloading other properties.

“There’s no reason,” he said, “to sort of drink from the fire hose here.”

According to the CBRE report, the county could avoid nearly $19 million in renovation costs if it sells City Campus, at North 27th and West Wells streets in Milwaukee. About 160 county employees work in a former hospital at the campus, which also includes a vacant theater and retail space. According to the CBRE report, an entire floor of the former hospital is so outdated that it is a hazard to employees.

The County Board of Supervisors’ Committee on Transportation, Public Works and Transit, of which Weishan is a member, gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a timeline resolution for closing and potentially selling the campus as well as acting on CBRE’s other recommendations.

Supervisor Mark Borkowski, a member of the public works committee, said the county has failed to follow through on past efforts to leave City Campus and has struggled to develop a strategy for acting on CBRE’s other recommendations.

“If we can be proactive, finally, with City Campus,” he said, “and have that as an accomplishment, I believe that’s going to give us positive momentum.”

Weishan said he wants to sell City Campus but does not want the county to make short-sighted decisions about other properties. That concern, he said, stems from the inclusion of specific deadlines in the resolution, such as the requirement that a decision be made during budget deliberations in fall about the future of the medical examiner’s office on North 10th Street, a building CBRE claims requires significant upgrades.

A provision in the original resolution considered by the public works committee, Weishan said, would have let the county’s administrative branch make a decision about the medical examiner’s office without consulting the County Board.

“We would have been giving the green light,” he said, “to implement that plan that hasn’t even been completed yet.”

He attempted, but failed, to remove the deadlines from the resolution.

But the committee amended the resolution, based on a proposal from Supervisor Pat Jursik, to require the administration receive County Board approval before acting on any portion of its yet-unfinished plans.

Borkowski said that compromise should be enough to ensure the sale or redevelopment of City Campus proceeds smoothly.

“It might not be what everybody wants,” Borkowski said, “but we’re at least doing something.”

Jursik did not respond to requests for comment after the meeting. During the meeting, she said the deadlines should be kept in place to ensure the county acts.

“Everything is related,” she said. “It’s all so interconnected that you can’t be pulling things apart and acting like you can make individual decisions on just one facility.”

At this point, Borkowski said, the County Board should be open to any strategy as long as it helps the county dispose of unneeded properties and reduce costs to taxpayers. Debate about how to sell other properties can wait, he said, until after the county gets rid of City Campus.

“We’ve been too busy,” he said, “being the hamster in the wheel.”

But Weishan said Jursik’s amendment is not enough. The county still is considering the futures of a number of properties simultaneously, he said, when it should be focusing on buildings individually and making methodical decisions.

“There should be a well thought-out process,” Weishan said after the meeting. “I think she is just planning on a fire sale.” Follow @bkevit