Controversial Bay View Affordable Housing Sails Though Council

Proposed Austin Commons affordable housing development for 2300 block of S. Austin St. Photo taken April 11, 2025 by Urban Milwaukee staff.

The once high-stakes approval of a proposed affordable housing development ended without any debate Tuesday.

The Milwaukee Common Council unanimously approved a $2.1 million city subsidy for Austin Commons, a proposed 100-unit apartment building in Bay View.

The proposal was approved as part of the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee’s package of files. Neither area Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who had previously delayed the proposal’s council review, nor Ald. Robert Bauman, the project’s most vocal council opponent, spoke about the development before the vote.

The approval provides an essential piece of financing for the $33.4 million development, which would replace three vacant homes just south of E. Lincoln Avenue on S. Austin Street.

Austin Commons would be developed by a partnership of Northernstar Companies, led by Brandon Methu, and The Commonwealth Companies. The five-story building would include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments reserved for households earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income.

Expected rents would range from approximately $500 to $1,300 per month, Methu previously told a council committee.

The development is backed by low-income housing tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), but Department of City Development officials warned that the project needed the city subsidy to complete its financing. The development team faced a July 31, 2025, WHEDA deadline to move the proposal forward.

Construction could be completed by the end of 2027, according to DCD housing official Larry Kilmer.

The council’s quiet approval followed months of neighborhood debate and a divided committee vote a week earlier.

Dimitrijevic had delayed consideration of the subsidy while the city and development team held three public meetings and worked to address concerns about the building’s size, parking and management. She ultimately declined to oppose the subsidy, saying feedback from nearby residents was “completely divided.”

“We cannot thrive in the Bay View neighborhood if the entire city does not thrive and is inclusive,” Dimitrijevic told the committee on July 7.

Bauman cast the lone vote against the proposal at the committee level. He argued that the five-story apartment building was too large for Austin Street, despite the property’s existing zoning that allows the development.

“This does not belong on this street, in my opinion,” Bauman said. He made it clear his concerns were about the scale, and not the fact that the development included affordable housing.

The proposal drew additional concerns about parking. Austin Commons would include 104 interior parking spaces, but residents would lease them separately from their apartments at an expected cost of approximately $104 per month.

Bauman predicted residents would instead use free street parking. Department of Public Works officials said multiple studies found parking in the area was approximately 50% utilized and that changes already approved by the council could add more than 100 on-street parking spaces nearby.

The city subsidy will be structured as an effective property tax rebate, with the development partnership repaid over a set period of time using a portion of the incremental property tax revenue generated by Austin Commons.

The city previously awarded the development a separate $500,000 federal HOME grant.

Because Austin Commons would receive more than $1 million in city assistance, the development team will be required to have at least 40% of construction work hours performed by unemployed or underemployed Milwaukee residents and 25% of contracting, by value, done by disadvantaged small businesses.

The proposal involves the demolition of three vacant homes on unusually deep lots. The development, because of the lot size, complies with the existing zoning limits on density.

The former Klement’s sausage factory is across the street, and a public housing high-rise is located immediately east of the development site. The homes were previously acquired by Klement’s and, along with the vacant factory, were sold to Hintz Holdings in 2023. The company would sell the houses to Methu to facilitate the Austin Commons proposal.

Ald. Russell W. Stamper, II, who supported the proposal during the committee meeting, was excused from Tuesday’s Common Council meeting.

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