St. Rita Square

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St. Rita Square, an urban senior-living apartment community on Milwaukee’s Lower East Side, is one of Capri’s first projects in an urban setting. Through a longstanding relationship with the Catholic Diocese, Capri Communities purchased the St. Rita Church campus, which included a vacant school and adjacent convent, for $1. In return, Capri agreed to build the church along with a senior-living center, and then sell the church back to the diocese for $1.

With that rich history, this project was as much about maintaining a connection to the past as it was about looking toward the future. St. Rita is deeply rooted in Milwaukee’s Italian-America community. Many parishioners come from the Blessed Virgin of Pompeii Church, which was closed more than 50 years ago. Although St. Rita is thriving, its building had become costly to maintain and presented accessibility difficulties for the congregation.

Working in the heart of a historic downtown Milwaukee neighborhood, the team looked to honor the past while moving into the future. Following the demolition of the existing church, school and convent, along with two multi-tenant residential buildings, the site provided space for 118 units offering independent living, memory care and assisted living.
As with many projects built during the pandemic, the crew was asked to oversee construction on-site while taking various safety precautions and delivering the project within a timeline that met Capri’s leasing obligations.