Library/apartment projects face challenges

A development that would combine a library with apartments on Milwaukee’s North King Drive has been delayed, while a similar project on West Good Hope Road remains on track.

The King Drive project, at the northeast corner of North King Drive and West Locust Street, has fallen behind schedule due to funding issues, library construction project manager Sam McGovern-Rowen said at the Library Board Building and Development Committee meeting Thursday.

The Good Hope Road project, at 7717 W. Good Hope Road, has run into some issues with developers that could delay the project, but McGovern-Rowen said it’s still making progress.

The main cause of delay for the King project was failure to receive federal New Market Tax Credits, which help fund projects in neighborhoods with higher unemployment and poverty.

The project’s developer, Young Development Group LLC, planned to receive $3.6 million from that source.

Young Development Group is looking for investors and applying for the credits again, McGovern-Rowen said.

Other planned sources of funding for the King project include a $5.7 million loan from the Wisconsin Housing and Development Authority, $5.3 million from the library, around $524,000 in equity cash and a $500,000 low-interest loan from Bader Philanthropies Inc.

Young Development Group also recently has added Chris Laurent, senior vice president of business development at national development firm Cinnaire, as a co-developer, McGovern-Rowen said. Laurent originally was a consultant on the project.

The Good Hope Road project is in a holding pattern, McGovern-Rowen said, as the library system works out details with the project’s developers, Maures Development Group LLC and Royal Capital Group LLC. He said it also is facing normal construction delays.