Second Phase of City Place Takes Shape

City Place Two construction. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The second apartment building is headed toward completion in the City Place complex.

The three-building development, which will fill most of a block north of Fiserv Forum and the new Milwaukee Public Museum, was first approved in 2017. But activity has been sparse.

The first phase, the 51-unit City Place Apartments, was completed in 2018. But despite securing low-income housing tax credits in 2020, the second phase, City Place Two, has taken years due to financing challenges. Both developments are affordable buildings, with rents targeted at no more than 30% of a qualifying household’s income.

City Place Two will ultimately include 38 apartments spread over four levels.

The building is being developed by a partnership of Haywood Group and Thirty Six Blocks. The partners closed on the financing in October 2023 after requiring multiple extensions to be able to buy the lot, 1728 N. 6th St., from the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee.

According to a 2021 project plan, the building would include 32 two-bedroom units set aside at below-market rates for individuals making less than 60% of the area median income and six, three-bedroom townhomes available at market rates. Parking will be included on the building’s first floor.

Engberg Anderson Architects is serving as the project architect. Commonwealth Construction is serving as the general contractor.

Governor Tony Evers awarded the project $2 million in July 2022 from the state’s American Rescue Plan Act grant to address a financing gap. It was one of 10 Milwaukee and 22 statewide affordable housing projects to receive a funding boost. The 2022 grant supplemented a $5.7 million low-income housing tax credit award in 2020. The tax credits, issued by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, provide up-front equity in exchange for leasing the units for below-market rates for multiple decades.

Unlike several other recent affordable housing developments, the City of Milwaukee did not create a tax incremental financing district to attempt to fill a financing gap.

The development was, according to the 2017 approval, originally only to include a subsidized first phase and two additional market-rate phases on the block bounded by W. Vine, W. Walnut, N. 5th and N. 6th streets. But the city allowed the development team to pursue a second affordable apartment building at the site of what was originally to be the third phase.

Haywood Group is led by Kalan Haywood. Al Smith is listed as the registered agent in state record for Thirty Six Blocks. Robin Reese, who relocated to North Carolina, also appeared before several city committees representing the development team. Haywood and Thirty Six also developed the original City Place development and the Ingram Place Apartments.

Prior to City Place, almost the entire block had been vacant since the 1990s. The site, similar to many in the area, was formerly all single-family homes that the city began demolishing in the 1970s for a never-completed urban renewal project.

Photos

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Rendering and Site Plan

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