City Will Construct Mini-Neighborhood in King Park

Vacant lots targeted for housing development near N. 15th Street. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The City of Milwaukee will attempt to undo the harms of a botched 1960s urban renewal scheme by developing new housing on a cluster of 38 vacant lots located just south of King Park.

The proposal, first revealed Wednesday, comes as Mayor Cavalier Johnson has declared 2026 the “year of housing.”

The plan calls for dozens of homes to be developed and sold to owner-occupants at affordable prices.

A total of $1.5 million would be allocated from a larger $22 million amendment of a downtown TIF district to purchase a series of vacant lots and merge them with city-owned properties. The city would also use the funding for site preparation, environmental remediation and, possibly, to acquire other properties.

“The funding provided by the proposed amendment will allow us to consolidate ownership of these properties under city control, and when the city is able to consolidate the ownership, it best positions us to create opportunities for future housing and to spur additional development in the neighborhood,” said the mayor at a press conference held atop one of the vacant lots, 1121 N. 15th St.

An additional $1.5 million would subsidize the development of new housing and fund existing housing programs in the area, which cover safety-focused code compliance repairs.

Dave Misky, city real estate director, said the city expects to close on the purchase of the properties within two months.

“In our efforts to grow Milwaukee, it’s not simply about attracting more people here, it’s also about working to make sure that people who call Milwaukee home are able to continue to stay in Milwaukee, that they don’t get priced out, that they have opportunities to stay in the neighborhoods that they’ve called home,” said Johnson.

The city, according to a Department of City Development spokesperson, has a purchase option to acquire 19 lots from Fountain CRE LLC for under $200,000. It would pair them with an equal number of lots it owns interspersed throughout the area to create a site nearly two full city blocks in size.

“The lot lines are going to have to be redrawn when we acquire it all,” said Dan Casanova, DCD economic development specialist.

Fountain CRE is led by Mark Schiller of Waukesha. The entity has acquired the properties in recent decades, including a handful of duplexes that aren’t part of the deal. It has owned most of the vacant lots for at least two decades through a predecessor firm registered to Schiller. The lots the city would acquire are assessed for an average of about $11,000.

Area Alderman Robert Bauman is supporting the plan and its potential to restore what was previously lost. “Seventy years ago, this neighborhood was a very dense, urban neighborhood of one- and two-family dwellings. King Park did not exist; it was also a residential neighborhood. Then urban renewal took over. The federally funded program, administered by the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee, was clear cut. Nine hundred dwellings were demolished,” he said.

Bauman said that the area has remained “strangely vacant” given its proximity to Aurora Sinai Medical Center, Milwaukee County Courthouse, Marquette University and Downtown.

“For years, development on many of these vacant lots simply has not been feasible,” said Lafayette Crump, Department of City Development commissioner. But, he said, a strategic investment by the city will “stabilize housing and encourage investment throughout the neighborhood.”

The city will work with private developers to build the initial attached homes for owner-occupants. The missing-middle housing type is an outgrowth of the city’s Housing Element plan, formerly known as Growing MKE.

“These styles have the additional benefits of being lower maintenance, lower cost and supporting walkable urban neighborhoods with a diversity of housing styles,” says a November 2025 request for qualifications.

A subsidy of $100,000 is expected to be required to close the gap between development and construction costs and an affordable purchase price for buyers.

“We have a current pool of $2.8 million; this will add to that,” said Larry Kilmer, DCD housing specialist. That includes $1.2 million from a 2024 federal grant and $1.6 million from the 2026 city budget for the “revive” portion of the city’s Raze and Revive program.

But the initial funding isn’t expected to fill the entire site, which is bordered by W. Juneau Avenue, W. Highland Ave., N. 14th Street and N. Callahan Place.

“Our long-term vision is still to be determined,” said Kilmer of the King Park sites.

A request for qualifications issued last November said DCD anticipated announcing the winning development teams in February.

“We are still negotiating with the top development teams,” said Kilmer. He said he expected DCD to announce agreements with up to four developers “hopefully soon.”

Bauman said he is looking at two models as patterns for success: the Highland Homes and the Townhomes at Carver Park developments. Highland Homes is located just west of King Park and includes owner-occupied homes targeted at a mix of incomes. The Carver Park homes are attached townhomes available for rent. “Those are [Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee] developments from back when the Housing Authority was actually doing good things,” said Bauman. “They turned out very well. Assessments are strong; values have held up.”

Private Lot List

1. 1117-1119 N. 14th St.
2. 1121 N. 14th St.
3. 1123 N. 14th St.
4. 1127 N. 14th St.
5. 1131-1133 N. 14th St.
6. 1137 N. 14th St.
7. 1141 N. 14th St.
8. 1101 N. 15th St.
9. 1102 N. 15th St.
10. 1111 N. 15th St.
11. 1113-1115 N. 15th St.
12. 1114 N. 15th St.
13. 1116 N. 15th St.
14. 1117 N. 15th St.
15. 1118-1120 N. 15th St.
16. 1123 N. 15th St.
17. 1129-1131 N. 15th St.
18. 1417 W. Juneau Ave.
19. 1423-1425 W. Juneau Ave.

Nearby City Lots

1. 1506 W. Highland Ave.
2. 1510 W. Highland Ave.
3. 1107 N. 15th St.
4. 1121 N. 15th St.
5. 1125 N. 15th St.
6. 1507 W. Juneau Ave.
7. 1433 W. Juneau Ave.
8. 1429 W. Juneau Ave.
9. 1144 N. 15th St.
10. 1132 N. 15th St.
11. 1124 N. 15th St.
12. 1122 N. 15th St.
13. 1434 W. Highland Ave.
14. 1424 W. Highland Ave.
15. 1411 W. Juneau Ave.
16. 1405 W. Juneau Ave.
17. 1412 W. Highland Ave.

Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.