Bronzeville Estates Adds Housing, Commercial Space Near North Ave

Developer Melissa Allen is readying her mixed-use, $9.5 million Bronzeville Estates proposal for development.

The scattered-site project will bring an influx of affordable housing and new commercial space to the Bronzeville neighborhood along W. North Ave.

“There are an awful lot of good things going on in Bronzeville right now, and this is just another example,” said Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee assistant executive director Dave Misky to the authority’s board Thursday afternoon. Allen’s Maures Development Group is involved in a lot of them, including the scattered-site project, a home for the Bronzeville Center for the Arts, the 4th Street School redevelopment and the recently opened America’s Black Holocaust Museum.

The Bronzeville Estates plan was first unveiled in 2020, but Allen has since revised the list of properties she would acquire from the city. She’s also added a substantial new building on N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and taken on the rehabilitation of a vacant commercial building on W. North Ave.

It now includes five units of housing designed to the highly-energy efficient Passive House standard and six units set aside for those that were previously homeless.

Backed by low-income housing tax credits, the project will create 15 units of new housing, primarily in the form of duplexes, and rehabilitate 15 other units in existing houses.

“Most of the rehab buildings are dilapidated properties,” Allen said to the RACM board members.

The properties are located in the blocks bounded by W. Clarke Ave., N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., W. Brown St. and N. 7th St. A single outlying property is at 2427-2429 N. Teutonia Ave. “All of the properties are within a half-mile radius of one another,” said Allen.

Maures Development will pay $45,000 for the 11,250-square-foot site at 1940-1948 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and construct a two-story building on the property. It is to include two first-floor commercial spaces and two apartments above. The city listed the four-parcel site for sale last year after an earlier development proposal fell through.

The adjacent Kindred Building, 1950 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., is already owned by Allen and part of the development plan. It will include two commercial units and one apartment.

Allen will also purchase the two-story building at 540 W. North Ave. for $52,000 from RACM. It will become a community service facility.

A series of other duplexes and vacant lots will be purchased from the city for $1 each.

The bulk of the project financing comes from the tax credits which requires the included affordable units (25 in total) to be set aside at below-market rates for individuals with less than 60% of the Milwaukee County median income. The rent maximums are set at 30% of the income threshold.

Units would include a mix of two-bedroom, three-bedroom and four-bedroom floor plans.

The project was one of a handful in the city to receive a $1 million infusion from Governor Tony Evers and the state’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation last month. The funding is intended to cover rising construction costs.

“We are looking to the City of Milwaukee for some other grants to be determined,” said Allen. The Housing Trust Fund often is used to close financing gaps on affordable housing projects and the council infused it with a record amount of money from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act grant.

Allen said she hopes to close on the purchase in June. “Late summer of 2023 everything will be finalized with construction and leased,” she told the board.

All of the properties will be rental units while the 15-year tax credit period is in effect. Once the credits expire, Allen said the intent is to sell the homes.

This is Allen’s third affordable, scattered-site housing development.

In September, Allen purchased six properties on the 2300 block of N. 5th St. for $420,000 from Samuel Johnson. Each contains at least one duplex and four of them have an accessory dwelling unit (rear house). Three of the properties, according to a map presented by Allen, are poised to be included in the project.

The RACM board unanimously endorsed the sale. The sale will also require Common Council approval.

Engberg Anderson Architects is leading the design of the new building.

Property List

• 2317-2319 N. 5th St. (private acquisition)
• 2323-2325 N. 5th St. (private acquisition)
• 2326-2334 N. 5th St. (vacant)
• 2335 N. 5th St. (private acquisition)
• 2369 N. 5th St. (vacant)
• 2528-2530 N. 5th St. (vacant)
• 2633 N. 5th St.
• 2354-2356 N. 6th St. (vacant)
• 2421 N. 6th St.
• 2433 N. 6th St. (vacant)
• 2523 N. 6th St. (vacant)
• 2912-2914 N. 6th St.
• 2921-2923 N. 6th St.
• 2946 N. 6th St.
• 2948 N. 7th St.
• 629-631 W. Clarke St.
• 1940-1948 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.
• 1950 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. (private acquisition)
• 540 W. North Ave.
• 2427-2429 N. Teutonia Ave. (private acquisition)

Renderings/Plans