6446 W. Fond du Lac Ave. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The former location of a highly-regarded Milwaukee barbershop is on the market.

The Department of City Development is accepting offers until mid-day July 19 for the 1,920-square-foot building at 6446 W. Fond du Lac Ave. The list price is $135,000.

Built in 1955, it spent more than two decades as the home of Satin Wave.

The business, which can be traced back to 1952, moved between several locations until settling in the Lincoln Creek neighborhood. It was led by Ronald Sherrill Sr. from 1988 until his death in 2013. Sherill’s uncle had started the barbershop, and his son, Ronald Sherrill Jr., ran the business until it closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A sign at the property still displays a farewell, “Rest in Heaven Dorinda,” to long-time employee Dorinda Boston who passed away in Sept. 2020. Several individuals paid tribute to her in a Facebook post.

The city acquired the property, which includes a 20-space parking lot, in December 2022 through property tax foreclosure.

The building was originally home to West Side Cycle, a Harley-Davidson dealership that lasted for several decades at the location, and later Chuck’s Midwest Cycle.

Photos included with the city’s listing show all the fixtures for a salon still in place. And restoring it into a salon is one of several uses recommended on the listing sheet. “Office, hair salon, residential, retail, personal instructions, recording or art studio, restaurant or café without a drive-through, catering, animal care clinic or grooming facility, photography, etc,” says the two-page document for potential uses.

The document also lists proposals for which offers with not be accepted: “Parking lot, pawn shop, cash-for gold business, cigarette or cigar shop, gun shop, liquor store, payday or auto-title loan store, auto sales, medical service facility, child care, or other uses prohibited by zoning.”

The final sale is subject to Common Council approval.

Photos

Weekly Recap

Inside Wellpoint’s Campus Overhaul

A former orphanage is being redeveloped as a northwest side community anchor under a multi-year plan from Wellpoint Care Network.

The trauma-informed-care-focused nonprofit rebranded itself as Wellpoint, from SaintA, in 2022 and is now well into a comprehensive, $25 million overhaul of its 18-acre campus, 8901 W. Capitol Dr.

“I feel like at this point we’ve really figured out how to best be part of this community and to best bring the services we offer to the people in our care,” said President and CEO Ann Leinfelder Grove during a tour of the 120,000-square-foot facility.

The campus overhaul, which includes a public-facing community room, new offices and meeting spaces, a training center and a clinic, reflects the continued evolution of the way Wellpoint provides care.

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Villard Avenue Church Finds New Life

A vacant church would be reborn as a home for Kingdom Empowered Ministries under a plan approved Tuesday by the Milwaukee Common Council.

Pastor Clem Richardson and his wife Barbara will purchase the former Peace Evangelical Lutheran Chuch, 5229 N. 51st Blvd.

“God blessed us to start a ministry in 2018,” said Clem to the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee on July 6.

“The vision is to see people come out of oppression and learn financial literacy, spiritual wholeness and economic development. Once a person has been dealt with spiritually they can really put themselves together mentally,” said the pastor, who said he is a licensed therapist as well.

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Committee Rejects Housing Voucher Incentives

A resolution that would have provided incentives to landlords not to discriminate against renters using Section 8 housing vouchers received pushback Wednesday before being voted down.

Housing advocates expressed concern that Supervisor Shawn Rolland‘s resolution indicated the county would give up on enforcing previously-approved legal protection of renters using federal housing vouchers, which provide public support for low-income individuals to live in private properties.

In 2018, the Milwaukee County Board passed a new ordinance that prohibits landlords from discriminating against potential renters because they plan to pay their rent with a voucher. Advocates told supervisors sitting on the board’s Health Equity, Human Needs and Strategic Planning Committee that they want to see the county prioritize enforcement before moving to incentives.

The lack of enforcement is why Rolland drafted his resolution. Renters facing alleged discrimination are required to file a “verified complaint” with the county’s Office of Corporation Counsel. After speaking with corporation counsel, Rolland discovered that zero verified complaints had been filed since the ordinance took effect in 2018.

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Land Trust Unveils Forever Affordable Homes

The Milwaukee Community Land Trust (MCLT) is ramping up its work to create a new supply of quality, owner-occupied, affordable houses in the city.

The organization, with development partner VIA CDC, unveiled four newly-renovated houses Wednesday in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood. They join a house the partners completed late last year, and have now sold, in the Muskego Way neighborhood on the city’s South Side.

An ownership model splits the land from the house above, allowing future residents to build wealth and MCLT to ensure the house remains affordable through multiple owners.

“We get these homes down to the studs and we build them back up, transforming them into affordable, safe and quality homes for income-qualifying families,” said VIA executive director JoAnna Bautch, at a press conference on N. 16th Street in front of one of the homes. “We believe safe and affordable homeownership is the foundation to strengthening our neighborhoods.”

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Northwestern Mutual Names Tower Team

Northwestern Mutual is getting the band back together. The insurance company announced the development team for the $500 million overhaul of its aging, 18-story North Office Building.

Mirroring the fact that the building is being overhauled to resemble the glassy, 32-story tower to its south, the company has hired many of the same contracting partners to lead the north building’s redevelopment. A partnership of Gilbane Building Co. and CG Schmidt will lead the general contracting and construction management on the project, as it did for the 2017 tower. Connecticut-based Pickard Chilton, previously announced as the building’s designer, will be joined by Houston-based Kendall/Heaton Associates.

“It’s a privilege to collaborate with Northwestern Mutual once more in re-envisioning their downtown campus and fostering a thriving employee environment,” said Rick Schmidt, CEO and chairman of CG Schmidt, in a press release. “We cherish the opportunity to leave an indelible mark on our city’s skyline and contribute to its continued evolution.”

“Collaborating with Northwestern Mutual again was an opportunity we couldn’t resist,” said Jon Pickard, principal at Pickard Chilton. “We value the joint efforts with their leadership and project team, embarking on initiatives that drive economic benefits for the city, revitalize the neighborhood, and cultivate prospects for the people of Milwaukee.”

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Can Mitchell Street Building Be Moved?

The future of a 139-year-old building on Historic Mitchell Street hangs, or more appropriately leans, in the balance.

Funeral home director and former alderman Jim Witkowiak is seeking Historic Preservation Commission approval to reconstruct the building at 515 W. Historic Mitchell St. two lots to the east of his namesake funeral home, 529 W. Historic Mitchell St., in order to create a plaza,

But the commission would like to see Witkowiak literally pick up and move the structure 50 feet to make room for the new plaza, as he promised when securing approval in 2016, rather than save the front facade and build a new rear structure.

Witkowiak and his architect, Luis Barbosa Perches of BMR Design Group, don’t think the two-story building could survive today.

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Can County Protect Renters With Housing Vouchers?

There’s a problem in Milwaukee County of landlords turning away prospective tenants because they plan to pay their rent with Section 8 housing vouchers.

These vouchers are used by people and families making 50% or less of the area’s median income. Sup. Shawn Rolland has authored a resolution that he hopes will eventually lead to a solution to the problem.

Rolland said he and others on the county board have been hearing stories from housing advocates about the Section 8 discrimination. The county does have an ordinance that prohibits this discrimination, but the process of enforcement is not working as currently devised. What’s more, there is legal uncertainty about whether the county can enforce its own ordinance.

With enforcement now a questionable tactic for solving the problem, Rolland’s resolution seeks to “develop a list of viable strategies to incentivize landlords to accept renters who are participating in Milwaukee County’s Housing Choice Voucher Program.” And it asks the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, which contains the county’s Housing Division, to work with any other relevant county agencies on the issue.

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