New Life For Old Riverwest Bank
From mothballed to sober living: Recovery organization has purchased one-time Cream City Hostel.
Cream City Hostel in 2019, 500 E. Center St. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
A long-vacant bank on the border of the Riverwest and Harambee neighborhoods has found a new lease on life, but not in the way once expected.
4th Dimension Sobriety (4D) now owns the former Holton State Bank, 500 E. Center St., and aims to provide a stabilizing presence to the neighborhood and those it serves. Led by Jason Gonzalez, the nonprofit organization provides safe housing for those wishing to remain sober. It purchased the building in October after renting the property for three years.
After lying vacant for 13 years, the building was revitalized in 2018 by developer Juli Kaufmann and leased to neighborhood residents seeking to launch a hostel. Cream City Hostel opened in June 2019, but less than a year later, the business was a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent worldwide travel slowdown. After a false start to pivot to a cohousing model, Kaufmann’s RiverBee investment group leased the property to 4th Dimension.
Gonzalez was a logical fit for the building, having walked the walk in more ways than one. He launched the nonprofit as a result of his recovery from substance abuse and already operated an aftercare facility, 2838 N. Weil St., in the neighborhood with three-month and six-month programs.
“4D wasn’t built on a big plan or some grand vision. It was just a bunch of us, people who’ve been through hell, trying to make something work. And somehow, this thing grew. Watching it happen has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life,” said Gonzalez in a development case study released in December by Kaufmann’s Fix Development.
The building, redeveloped for overnight stays and complete with a fenced-in backyard and communal indoor spaces, was a “perfect match” for 4th Dimension, says the case study.
4th Dimension’s model is built around creating a supportive network in a community environment. “Recovery happens through community,” said Gonzalez. 4th Dimension has been recognized for its success and growth, including winning a prestigious MANDI award from LISC Milwaukee in 2022.
The three-level, 7,980-square-foot building has seen a lot in its 98-year life. Built for the neighborhood-based Holton State Bank, the building was shuttered in 1960 when Marine Bank acquired the bank. It was briefly a location for the Boys & Girls Club of Milwaukee in the 1970s, before serving as the home of Milwaukee Public Schools‘ Centro del Nino charter school from 1975-2006. Located at the busy intersection of N. Holton and E. Center streets, it then sat vacant for more than a decade.
“We knew the building was a historic asset and knew that it had potential for higher purpose,” said Kaufmann, a Riverwest resident who had long been looking for a location for a hostel. Having locally pioneered a community investment model for projects like the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace, Kaufmann raised funding from 40 investors, many connected to the neighborhood.
The failure of the hostel has been attributed to bad luck more than anything else.
“We had such a promising start,” said co-founder Wendy Mesich. “And then the pandemic arrived and forced us to make early decisions in our business model that we simply weren’t prepared to make.”
“I am quite certain that, absent the COVID pandemic, the Cream City Hostel would have been successful,” said RiverBee investor Dennis Grzezinski.
But the hostel’s failure still put the investment group, which included this author, on uncertain financial footing. The nonprofit’s rent payments were enough to sustain the debt service, but not enough to mitigate any major building systems’ failures or yield a profit.
4D purchased the building for $480,000, which allowed the investment group to exit without a loss.
“On behalf of Riverbee Investors, we are absolutely delighted with this sale to 4D,” said Kaufmann. “From the very outset of this project, we knew that we wanted something more for that building and something more for Riverwest than what was there. Jason and 4D have done much more than add value to the property. They’ve added value to our community and to so many lives of those that they touch every day with their services and programs.”
Kaufmann said she hopes the case study inspires others to pursue “DIY solidarity real estate” in their own neighborhoods.
Disclosure: Jeramey Jannene was a passive, $1,000 investor in the RiverBee LLC group that redeveloped the building.
2019 Photos
Pre-Renovation Photos
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good work.
Great use for an old building…that doesn’t require first floor retail! 🙂
Optimal support to thrive in Recovery.