Meta House Developing $33 Million Women’s Treatment Center

Meta House Project Horizon complex. Rendering by HGA.

A significant new addiction treatment complex is under development on Milwaukee’s Near West Side.

Meta House is moving forward with “Project Horizon,” an outpatient facility and residential housing complex with the capacity to serve up to 100 women and their children at one time. The nonprofit organization works to break the cycle of drug addiction in women and seeks to strengthen families.

The $33 million complex will include three connected buildings spanning approximately 100,000 square feet and four stories in the Piggssville neighborhood.

The 61-year-old organization has been based in Riverwest since the 1980s, but will relocate to a 4.8-acre site owned by Molson Coors subsidiary Miller Brewing for the past half century. The brewery previously used a one-story, 39,165-square-foot building it constructed in 1977 as a data center.

The site, 3901 W. Blue Mound Rd., is located just south of and almost under the Wisconsin Avenue bridge. Meta House will develop its buildings atop a parking lot at the south end of the site and leave the former data center for a future use.

The three buildings include an inpatient residential facility for women and their children, an outpatient building with space for Meta House’s administrative offices and a lobby structure that will connect the two primary buildings.

The proposal, which required Board of Zoning Appeals approval, was met with some resistance during a series of spring hearings. But the board granted the nonprofit a 15-year approval to operate the facility at the site.

A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in August, with actual heavy lifting expected to occur within the next two months.

“I want to say thank you to the people in the surrounding neighborhoods that saw the value in bringing this to their neighborhood and the value that people that need these services in our city are able to get them here in their city too,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson at the event. “Too often in cities, folks will be in a particular neighborhood and they will say ‘no we don’t want any of this, no don’t want any of that.’ But the fact of the matter is this city is for everybody and everybody’s got to have a place, everybody has got to have an opportunity to set themselves on a better path forward. That’s what Meta House is about.”

“None of this happens in isolation and a lot of times it specifically doesn’t happen because people that reside in an area take a very resistant tone to these things,” said Fire Chief Aaron Lipski, whose department is the first responder to a surge in overdoses. “We are in the middle of a crisis in American, in Wisconsin and in the city of Milwaukee. And if we are not going to be able to work with folks that live in a community to get something that is the solution to this problem in the community, we are never going to solve this.” Lipski praised those that provided “welcoming, open arms” to a “crucial, crucial service.”

“We cannot wait to be part of this neighborhood and we are so grateful for your support here today,” said Meta House President and CEO Valerie Vidal.

The project is expected to be completed in spring 2026. It comes as overdose deaths have spiked amidst a nationwide opioid epidemic.

“Regardless of what community you are in Wisconsin, or for that matter in the country, you are going to hear about people who are struggling with the opioid epidemic or a substance abuse disorder,” said Attorney General Josh Kaul.

The development is partly funded by $4.91 million from the State of Wisconsin‘s settlement with the pharmaceutical industry. A similar amount is going to construct a new facility in Menomonie.

First-Ring Industrial Redevelopment Enterprise (FIRE) will provide $15 million in federal new market tax credits. FIRE is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the City of West Allis. Meta House also will receive $775,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

The organization is raising private donations for the facility.

“From the moment we learned about Meta House’s mission we were all in,” said donor Scott Happ. “We are just immensely proud of our investment in the community, and the women and the children and their families,” added his wife Kathy Happ.

Meta House’s Riverwest setup spans multiple properties and can treat 35 women. The organization is based out of leased space at 2625 N. Weil St.

Among those in the crowd at the grounding ceremony were area alderwoman Sharlen P. Moore and her colleagues President José G. Pérez and Ald. DiAndre Jackson, Meta House board chair Christine Culver Irgens and former NBA player and current Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Vin Baker, who recently opened his own treatment center.

HGA is designing the complex and Catalyst Construction is serving as the general contractor. The newly-launched Moxie Development Collective, led by Angie Tabrizi, is serving as the owner’s representative.

Meta House acquired the property for $925,000.

Prior to pursuing the Piggsville location, Meta House pursued a relocation to Glendale. But those plans were dropped in favor of the Milwaukee location.

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