Updated: Developer approaches Waukesha about downtown senior apartments

Jan. 11, 2011

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Jan. 11, 2011 0

Waukesha - An Oshkosh real estate development firm is looking to the city Plan Commission for support on its proposed 55-apartment senior housing project on Main St. in the heart of downtown.

Callan Schultz of Keystone Development said Tuesday that while the site is already zoned for apartments, he wants city support when he requests federal low income tax credits through the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

Without the tax credits, which are sold to raise equity financing, the project won't be built, Schultz said. WHEDA's application deadline is Feb. 4, with a decision expected by mid-April. In exchange for the credits, developers must set aside a share of the apartments with rent restrictions for tenants of lower income - 60% or less of the county median.

The Plan Commission, which must ultimately approve a site plan, has scheduled a discussion but no action on the project at its 6:30 p.m. meeting Wednesday at City Hall.

Keystone, which specializes in senior apartment projects in Wisconsin, is planning a four-story structure at 220 W. Main St., with retail space and parking on the first floor and one- or two-bedroom apartments on the second, third and fourth floors.

Riverview Commons, as it's called, would be located on a currently vacant lot and adjoining parking lot where a one-time Walgreen's drug store existed before it was demolished. It would abut existing apartments with ground-level retail space on the west and a Panos Fruit Market on the east. Avalon Square, a senior housing and assisted living complex, is directly across Main St. from the proposed project.

Schultz said the apartments would be targeted to renters 55 years or older, or "active seniors" who would provide a customer base for downtown Waukesha shops.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.