Aurora Plans Health Center At Wisconsin Avenue School

Wisconsin Avenue School, 2708 W. Wisconsin Ave. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Aurora Health Care has plans to develop a new health center on the Near West Side.

Aurora, now part of the huge Advocate Health system, is working with the Near West Side Partners, Inc. to develop a health center at the former Wisconsin Avenue School.

“Together with community partners, we plan to create a center that will provide a wide range of programs aimed at empowering individuals and families to achieve physical, mental, and social wellness,” Aurora told Urban Milwaukee in a statement. “We are actively collaborating with the City of Milwaukee and elected officials on next steps and hope to share more soon.”

Aurora is planning to an array of health services at the Wisconsin Avenue School site including programs that cover cardiometabolic diseases, health education, pre- and postnatal telehealth, violence prevention, employment, housing and food access.

“The site we’ve chosen has faced historical trauma and economic disinvestment, and by leveraging partnerships and Aurora Sinai’s 150-year legacy, we aim to transform this community and reduce health disparities,” according to an Aurora memo describing the project.

The property owner, Rick Wiegand, initially planned to turn the property into an extended-stay hotel called Ambassador Suites, to accompany his nearby Ambassador Hotel. The building was last used by Milwaukee Public Schools in 2007. Wiegand owns a number of properties in the area and has built a reputation for taking on difficult projects for historic properties.

A block away from the school property is Concordia 27, a historic four-story building at the corner of N. 27th Street and W. Wells St., where Wiegand successfully led a $20 million redevelopment of affordable housing and mixed-use commercial space.

The Aurora center project surfaced publicly this month in a report from Milwaukee County’s Economic Development Division. To increase the size of the school property and add parking Wiegand is working with the county to split in half a nearby parking lot and add it to the site.

The land transfer went before the Milwaukee County Board’s Committee on Community, Environment and Economic Development Monday morning, but it was not taken up by supervisors. Committee Chair Sup. Steve Taylor said the deal was “not ready for primetime.”

Wiegand could not be reached for comment on the Aurora project.

For the deal to move forward, Aurora is seeking a the release of a City of Milwaukee deed restriction on the property preventing the owner from seeking a property tax exemption, according to area Ald. Robert Bauman, who does not support an exemption.

The parking lot is part of the former City Campus property at 2711 W. Wells St., which Wiegand purchased in 2015. The property is a former office complex for county employees, and among the buildings the county has sold off over the past decade to reduce its physical footprint and save money.

In 2018, the Wisconsin-based Aurora Health Care merged with Advocate Health Care of Illinois to form Advocate Aurora Health. And in 2022, Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health combined to create Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit health care system in the U.S.

Update: Story has been updated to include additional information on a deed restriction placed on the property. Additionally, reference to a clinic has been corrected to note Aurora is planning a Health Center, not a clinic.

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