Luxury Apartments Proposed for Long-Empty Site Off State St.

Landlocked and filled in for decades, Wauwatosa, "City of Homes," has lately been approving apartments on every spare parcel that can be freed-up.

The latest is a proposal for 126 luxury apartments on a site north of State Street, between 62nd and 66th streets, that had for a long time been tied up by a developer's difficulties and the real estate bust of 2008.

Wangard Partners Inc. wants to build on what has long been called "the Israel site," after developer David Israel, who bought it a decade ago and got approval for a residential apartment complex in 2006 but was never able to finance the plan.

Another name sometimes referenced is the "Western Industries" site, recalling the steel fabrication site that once stood to the east of where Metcalfe's Sentry Foods and a Walgreen's store now stand.

The $18.9 million Wangard proposal, if approved, would continue the transition of the area from industrial to residential that began with the building of The Reserve apartments on State between 60th and 62nd streets and then The Enclave immediately north of that.

Wangard is clearly looking for higher rents – it's proposing at this stage about 100 fewer units than the city has approved for the site in its master plan. But those units would be marketed to tenants willing to pay for "a unique type of modern housing that does not currently exist within this area, but will complement and be catalytic for the neighborhood," according to the firm's proposal.

"The development will consist of 126 market-rate luxury apartment homes, spread over seven buildings of 18 units each," Wangard said in its proposal. "This project is unique in that all apartment homes will have their own direct entrance (similar to that of a townhome or condominium).

"Select units will also have attached, direct access garages. The buildings will be slab on grade, wood frame structures with the exterior of the buildings consisting of stone and cement board siding."

In other words, the apartments would be about as much like being in a free-standing home as Wangard can make them.

The apartments would range from studios of just 550 square feet up to three-bedroom, home-sized units with two baths and an attached garage in 1,369 square feet.

Wangaard is asking for yet another Wauwatosa TIF – tax financing assistance to the tune of $2.5 million.

But Wangard estimates that, "Fully developed, we are anticipating an increment in assessed value of approximately $14,400,000. Estimated incremental tax revenue over a ten year period is projected in excess of $3,200,000."

One possible detraction of the site is that it stands immediately behind the Grede Foundry, a still-operating remnant of the corridor's industrial history and a source of oft-complained-about odors.

The foundry also looks like – well – a foundry, and one might think that would discourage some high-end renters.

But Wangard may be onto something. The younger buyers and tenants moving into Wauwatosa today do not seem intimidated by urban pathologies that frighten older residents.

The Reserve and The Enclave are just east of the same zone, near the foundry, and filled up quickly – The Enclave filled and had a waiting list before it was finished.

The development would also be in the neighborhood of Wauwatosa's double-track, mainline railroad, which last week began blowing its horns at every crossing day and night.

But again, The Reserve and The Enclave have been subject to train horns since their beginning that other Wauwatosans have not – there is a crossing just across the city line at 59th Street in Milwaukee where no horn ban has been in effect – and no one seems to have complained.

A 425 million-year-old attraction of the site is the Schoonmaker Reef, a state, national and world geologic treasure that has for a very long time been ignored. But in 2011, the city forged agreements with Derse Associates, former owners of the Enclave property, and with David Israel for what was then his proposed site, to preserve the reef and provide public access to it in any development.

Wangard says it will honor that agreement and accept a conservation easement on the part of the reef it owns, and provide for the desired public access. Its lower-density proposal should allow for the park-like atmosphere the city wanted for a buffer around the reef.

Wangard's proposal is scheduled to go to the Wauwatosa Plan Commission next week.