More Market Rate Apartments Proposed Near 76th and Brown Deer

A new market-rate housing proposal has emerged for Milwaukee’s Far Northwest Side.

Highland Park, Illinois-based Eagle Management RE intends to construct a six-building, 78-unit apartment complex on a vacant site at N. 72nd Street and W. Dean Rd. It’s the second market-rate proposal announced this year for the area.

The development, which is still in its early stages according to the project team, would serve as an extension of The Villas at Granville. That project, formerly a condominium complex known as Trinity Court, is a 123-unit development that Eagle acquired in 2012 for $5.33 million. It is located along N. 72nd Street, just south of W. Brown Deer Rd.

“The current community has a long waiting list,” said Eagle President Jim Glikin in presenting the vision to the Granville Advisory Committee on Wednesday morning. He said the underutilized amenities in the existing complex, including a swimming pool, fitness center and club room, could be shared with the new development. Outdoor amenities would be added for all residents in the new complex.

“It’s really a special little enclave that’s at the terminus of Dean Road,” said project architect Joel Agacki of Striegel-Agacki Studio.

The proposal calls for six 13-unit, two-story buildings laid out on a “meandering” roadway that would weave through the 5.52-acre site, 8400 N. 72nd St. Unit layouts would be a mix of 890-square-foot one-bedroom and approximately 1,300-square-foot two-bedroom apartments.

Rents would be betweene $2 to $2.5 per square foot per month said Glikin. That would translate into monthly rents of $1,800 to $2,800 said the developer. The per-square-foot rate is comparable with new construction in the downtown area.

A previous zoning designation would allow the development of approximately 130 units, but Glikin said the company had no intention of building that many and instead would attempt to mirror the scale of The Villages. That drew the praise of area Alderwoman Larresa Taylor.

“I appreciate that,” she told the committee. “I am very appreciative of his desire to expand in our area and increase the median income of our district.”

No renderings were shared, with Agacki presenting images of other buildings being used as inspirations and a site plan. He said the buildings would be modern in design and have flat roofs. “They want it to be of our time,” said the architect.

“We are very much in the preliminary stages of the project,” said Glikin. “We want to be good neighbors. We want to be a good presence in the community. We think that this project only adds to the fabric of Granville.”

There would be two parking spaces for each unit, with a mix of indoor spaces, outdoor surface spaces and detached garages. “This is more than ample parking for the amount of units that there are,” said Agacki.

Glikin said his firm’s analysis is that the market would not be as likely to support selling the units outright for more than $250,000 each. That would also avoid the challenge The Villas faces where seven of the condominiums were sold to private owners, but Eagle Management owns the remaining units as rentals.

The citizen advisory board unanimously endorsed advancing the project.

“I think it’s a great project,” said Tasha Dotson.

The area just southeast of the former Northridge Mall at N. 76th Street and W. Brown Deer Road has now attracted two market-rate housing developments this year. Immediately west of the proposed Eagle development site, Florida-based AB Asset Management is proposing a 220-unit addition to the 322-unit Sycamore Place complex, formerly Trinity Village.

AB revealed its plans in September, with project representatives claiming their development would fill a void in the market, which encompasses Milwaukee’s Far Northwest Side as well as suburban Menomonee Falls and Brown Deer.

Trinity Village and Trinity Court were once owned by the same ownership group, but both were subsequently sold and rehabilitated.

A New Street?

There is a looming request to the city that comes with the Eagle project, extending W. Dean Road to the east to N. 68th Street.

“Hopefully, the city could continue it through at the expense of the city,” said Agacki. An alternative includes releasing the easement the city holds to build the street through the southern edge of the development site. Agacki said initial conversations have been held with the Department of Public Works.

The street would be used as an auxiliary entryway to the development.

Regardless of financing, reaching N. 68th Street could be complicated because the city’s land management system does not show a planned roadway through two private parcels to the east that contain single-family homes.

N. Granville Woods Road, equivalent to where N. 70th Street would be, is planned to extend north to the unbuilt W. Dean Road but is also unbuilt. It would extend the suburban-style street network in the Granville Woods Business Park to the south, but provide little additional connectivity without a W. Dean Road extension to N. 68th Street.

A one-block-long new street segment in the Historic Third Ward is being paid for by increased property tax revenue from nearby development captured via a tax incremental financing district. The city is expected to spend $3.56 million on the project, which includes improvements to another nearby street.