Choice School Must Pay Property Taxes

A proposal for a private school to purchase a former Milwaukee Public Schools building comes with a catch: the structure of the deal will require the school to pay property taxes.

Tuesday morning, the Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee unanimously endorsed selling the vacant Fletcher Elementary School, 9500 W. Allyn St., to Synergy Development Group. Synergy will in turn lease the school to Greater Holy Temple Christian Academy (GHTCA).

Department of City Development representative Rhonda Szallai said a deed restriction would be placed on the property that requires it be a fully taxed use. The only way to remove the restriction would be to secure a vote from two-thirds of the council to remove it.

Led by Robert Chandler, Synergy would pay $500,000 for the school. GHTCA would move into the 60,754-square-foot building in time for the 2023-2024 school year.

The deal is part of a $5.3 million project by GHTCA that also includes a plan to open an early learning academy in a new building on what is currently a large asphalt lot immediately west of the school. The redevelopment would also include a new parking lot, lighted basketball court and playground. A DCD report says project partners include Korb + Associates Architects, Catalyst Construction and Chaput Land Surveys.

GHTCA intends to eventually buy the property outright, but Chandler and GHTCA executive director Edward DeShazer said there is no hard timeline for that to occur.

“We are anticipating that it will be ten plus years,” said Chandler.

“We are just excited to have an opportunity to be part of the community,” said DeShazer.

GHTCA’s current home, a three-story building with a number of additions, was originally built in 1929 for the Town of Granville and known as the 76th Street School after Milwaukee annexed the town. The private school has leased the building since 2008. The school is to pay the district approximately $750,000 this school year, including a utility reimbursement charge, to lease the property.

GHTCA, founded in 2003, is part of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program that provides publicly-funded vouchers for students to attend private schools.

MPS used Fletcher from 1973 to 2009. As reported by Urban Milwaukee last week, the city has been seeking to sell the Fletcher property on MPS’ behalf since 2016. Under state law, for the first two years it was offered solely to other school operators. Three letters of interest were received, but no purchase offers were submitted.

In 2018, the city began marketing the property for broader redevelopment. A 2019 proposal from White Lotus Group would have redeveloped the property into a 100-unit apartment building. But the affordable housing developer failed to secure the necessary low-income housing tax credits to advance the proposal. The property was relisted in 2021.

The sale agreement is sponsored by area Alderwoman Chantia Lewis. “We have been looking for a great community partner and [GHTCA’s] plans to be a community school and hub for the neighborhood is just what we need right now,” said Lewis to Urban Milwaukee. “I’m excited to bring in another organization that desires to be an asset to our neighborhood.” She praised the school’s commitment to the community.

The nine-acre Fletcher property is located northwest of the intersection of W. Brown Deer Rd. and N. 91st St. and immediately south of Milwaukee County Parks’ Joseph Lichter Park.

Proceeds from the sale of the MPS property, less closing and marketing costs, would be returned to the school district.

The former Fletcher School was named for Arthur A. Fletcher, a Black Republican federal government official who is regarded as the “father of affirmative action.”