McKinley School Saved From The Brink

Virtually every old building in Milwaukee could use a little TLC at some point, then there’s the William McKinley School, 2001 W. Vliet St.

“I would say this building is probably the worst building we have tackled in terms of its condition,” said Gorman & Company’s Ted Matkom in August 2020. His firm has redeveloped a number of former schools and city-owned homes.

“This building is almost the quintessential definition of blight,” said area Alderman Robert Bauman in November 2018.

The Department of Neighborhood Services called it the worst building they’ve ever seen.

But now the structure, built in phases starting in 1885 for Milwaukee Public Schools, is getting a new lease on life.

Gorman is redeveloping the property into 39 affordable apartments that will be leased to families of deployed military personnel. A portion of the oversized parking lot will be redeveloped as the site of four houses. The complicated project is backed by a mix of low income housing tax credits, historic preservation tax credits, tax incremental financing and environmental remediation grants.

But the structure almost didn’t make it to this point.

MPS vacated the property in the late 1970s, leasing, then selling to VE Carter Child Development Corporation. That entity operated a school in the building until 2009 and a daycare until 2013, when a significant fire struck.

The fire damaged a portion of the interior and released asbestos and other contaminants into the air.

The city designated the structure as historic in 2014, and ultimately acquired the building in property tax foreclosure in 2016. It was the second time the city took ownership in six years for unpaid taxes.

Gorman expressed interest in repurposing the structure, securing historic preservation tax credits in 2018 and low income housing tax credits in 2020.

The city added a $950,000 tax incremental financing (TIF) district in September 2020 to offset the high cost of environmental abatement and subsidize the four homes. The houses, requested by Bauman, are to be sold for approximately $150,000 each. Approximately $300,000 will go to Gorman to subsidize the houses, which will be built along W. Vliet St.

The remaining funds supported the city hiring contractors for an environmental cleanup of the site. The city anticipates reclaiming the costs through new property tax revenue collected by the end of 2043.

The city, through contractors, was to expend $1.1 million on an environmental cleanup before selling the property to Gorman for $1. That sale ultimately happened in December, after a series of permits were pulled in the year prior by DJK Environmental and Dirty Ducts Cleaning. The cleanup effort is being funded by the TIF district and a $425,000 grant from the EPA.

The EPA, through multiple grants, will have invested $875,000 in remediating the building, including properly disposing of abandoned containers, mercury, hazardous incinerator ash, friable asbestos and contaminated sump water. The city will have put in a similar amount when all is completed. The city’s contribution is expected to still be less than the cost demolish the structure.

Gorman is now deep into its work to redevelop and rehabilitate the structure, including installing aluminum-frame replica windows and painting the brick a cream color. As is standard in such redevelopment, each classroom will become roughly one apartment. A mix of layouts will yield two- and three-bedroom floor plans. The National Parks Service, through the use of historic preservation tax credits, must sign off on all building plans, ensuring a historically-sensitive redevelopment.

The housing credits require that units be set aside at fixed prices with priority given to military families. “If someone is deployed overseas or another part of the country, the family gets to live here,” said Matkom. “There is a big demand for this that really goes unmet because it flies under the radar.

Quorum Architects is serving as the project architect on the development.

A dilapidated tot lot to the south of the school, where W. McKinley Ave. once ran, has been removed and that parcel, 1255 N. 20th St., is being incorporated into the development. The new houses will result in the apartments being oriented toward N. 21st St. on the west. W. Vliet St. to the north will be rebuilt as part of a federally-funded project.

According to the 2020 version of the plan, 21 of the units will be set aside for individuals making less than 50% of the area median income, and another fourteen will be set aside for those making less than 80% of the area median income.

Notably missing from our earlier photos of the school is the 84-foot-tall chimney on the north side of the building, which was in poor condition and no longer served a necessary function. The building, actually a collection of structures built between 1885 and the 1950s, now has its final color, tuck pointed brickwork and most of its new or rehabilitated windows.

The apartment complex is to open this spring. Construction of the homes is to follow.

Photos

2021 Photos

Earlier Interior Photos

Site Plan