Blommer project may get city funds

TIF considered for apartment plan

A planned conversion of the historic Blommer building, on Milwaukee’s north side, into apartments might be getting city financing help.

A new tax incremental financing district, covering the development site, will undergo its first public hearing next week.

That TIF district would cover the former Blommer Ice Cream Co. building, 15001504 W. North Ave., and a parking lot west of that building.

Chicago-based Evergreen Real Estate Group and Milwaukee-based Legacy Midwest Renewal Corp. plan to convert the three-story Blommer building, built in 1928 and now used for storage, into 36 apartments.

A new three-story building and two-story town homes, totaling 28 apartments, will be constructed on the parking lot. The development will include around 1,900 square feet of office space for Legacy.

That project was approved in 2016 by city officials.

The development is being financed in part with federal affordable housing tax credits, which were awarded in 2015 by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

Developers sell the credits to raise equity cash to help finance apartment buildings. In turn, the developers provide apartments at belowmarket rents to people earning no more than 60% of the local median income.

Evergreen and Legacy are setting aside 54 of the project’s 64 apartments at below-market rents, according to a city report.

Under the new proposal, the city would provide $635,000 to help finance the $13.7 million development.

Those funds would be repaid through the new apartment building’s property taxes over roughly 20 years, the city report said.

The Redevelopment Authority’s board will review the proposal at its Thursday meeting. The tax district also needs Common Council approval.

The city funds are needed in part because the prices investors are paying for affordable housing tax credits have been dropping, said Sally Peltz, Legacy president.

Legacy hopes to begin construction by August, Peltz said Friday. The building will take about a year to complete.