County Planning New McGovern Park Senior Center

McGovern Park Senior Center. Photo taken May 24, 2020 by Jeramey Jannene.

McGovern Park may become the site of the first modern, mixed-use senior center.

Milwaukee County’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recently reported that it has begun working on a feasibility study for building a new mixed-use senior center in the park based on the ideas put forward by the Commission on Aging last year.

The commission released a conceptual plan in 2024 calling for upgrades to the county’s network of senior centers, expanding amenities, building out housing units and making the centers into fixtures of their local community.

“I think we just assumed a senior was some old, retired person who wanted to play bingo,” said Gene Guszkowski, a retired architect and commission member, in September last year. “I think older adults are a lot more than that, and so we need to address those expectations.”

The report envisions senior centers with contemporary dining options, like cafes and coffee shops as opposed to institutional cafeterias; educational programming; modern fitness and recreational amenities; creative programming and arts.

After the report was released, DHHS started looking for partners with development experience to work on a project at McGovern Park. The agency selected Jewish Family Services (JFS) , a social services non-profit with experience developing housing and other real estate projects.

JFS has operated in Milwaukee for more than 100 years. The non-profit provides social services, mental health counseling and maintains a handful of affordable housing properties, including units set aside for seniors and persons receiving a housing subsidy from the government.

The county has very limited funding to pursue new projects and developments, particularly in light of recent budgetary forecasts that show the county facing massive budget deficits in coming years.

The commission on aging recognized this reality when it developed its conceptual plan for the future of senior centers. The report suggests the county consider doing for senior centers what the city did for libraries: partner with a private developer to build out a mixed-use building with the senior center as a tenant.

The senior center in McGovern Park on the north side of the City of Milwaukee was not originally designed as a senior center, and Guzkowski has called the building an “overgrown park shelter.” While building a new center will be expensive, DHHS does not consider it fiscally sustainable to maintain the aging facility long-term, according to the new report.

The feasibility study will explore any potential risks for developing real estate on county parkland and any outside partnerships needed to ensure the new facility meets the goals set by the Commission on Aging’s conceptual plan. The completed report will include some initial designs for a proposed facility, as well as estimated development and operating costs.

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