Milwaukee’s King Park near Pabst site could get $20 million for housing

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By TOM DAYKIN

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Around $20 million to help create new housing, as well as improvements to streets and other public infrastructure, is being proposed for Milwaukee‘s King Park neighborhood and other nearby areas.

The funds would come from property tax revenue generated by The Brewery, the redeveloped former Pabst Brewing Co. complex on downtown’s northwest side.

That proposal, from Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s administration, will need Common Council approval. It’s to undergo its first public review at the Redevelopment Authority’s May 21 board meeting.

Johnson announced the plans during a May 13 news conference on a vacant lot at 1130 N. Callahan Place – which he said represents the future of Milwaukee housing.

The plans include $1.5 million to buy vacant lots and do site preparation work on the parcels. They would be combined with city-owned parcels to create single-family home development sites.

Those properties are in an area bordered by North Callahan Place, North 14th Street, West Highland Boulevard, and West Juneau Avenue.

The city Redevelopment Authority has a pending purchase agreement with the private landowner, Fountain CRE, led by Mark Schiller, and expects to complete the transaction within two months, Department of City Development officials said.

Another $1.5 million would be spent to help finance construction of dozens of affordable single-family homes on those lots, and on housing repair loans for current neighborhood homeowners.

Also, $500,000 would be provided for improvements to neighborhood business properties.

Most of the spending, around $17 million, would be for street repairs, traffic calming measures, and other public improvements within an area bordered roughly by North King Drive, North 18th Street, West Walnut Street, and West Wisconsin Avenue.

That includes $2 million to help Milwaukee County make improvements to King Park and its community center.

The $22 million proposal, including contingency and administrative spending, amounts to using downtown commercial development to benefit other neighborhoods, said Johnson and County Executive David Crowley.

That includes developing lots that still remain vacant after houses were demolished during the mid-1960s urban renewal program, said Alderman Robert Bauman, chair of the Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee.

Pabst brewery redevelopment helps finance improvements

The plan would tap a tax incremental financing district that the city created in 2006 to help finance the $240 million redevelopment of the 21-acre former Pabst brewery.

Pabst Brewing’s historic complex closed in 1996 after years of declining sales. The company continued to make Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee and other brands by contracting with other breweries.

Milwaukee real estate investor Joseph Zilber in 2006 bought the Pabst site, with investor/developer Jim Haertel taking ownership of the visitors center and offices. Haertel created Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery, which features taverns and event space.

With $28 million in city financing help, Zilber, who died in 2010, led the site’s redevelopment into apartments, hotels, craft breweries, offices and other new uses − with the last major building completed in 2021.