Soldiers Home redevelopment to begin early 2019
A $40 million conversion of Milwaukee's former historic Soldiers Home and other nearby buildings into veterans apartments will begin early next year once a fundraising campaign is completed.
Madison-based Alexander Co. expects to complete the development by fall 2020, said Kendra Bishop, director of marketing and public relations for the firm.
A campaign to raise $3 million in contributions to help finance the project is in "the home stretch" and is to be completed in December, she said.
Renovations on the Soldiers Home and other historic buildings on Milwaukee's west side are to begin by March, Bishop said.
The buildings are on or near Mitchell Boulevard, between I-94 and West National Avenue, on the grounds of the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Most of the work will be at Old Main, the original Soldiers Home that opened in 1869. It initially housed Civil War veterans and was home to generations of other vets before closing in 1989.
Old Main, the largest of the historic buildings, will be converted into 80 one- or two-bedroom apartments.
It will include community rooms, a fitness center and offices for home health care, counseling services and building management.
The former Administration Building, just south of
Old Main, will be converted into housing for 14 veterans who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless, and their families, according to Alexander Co.
That building will include common kitchen, dining and living rooms for the building's residents. There also will be space for support services for the residents.
Finally, three duplexes and a singlefamily home on the grounds will be restored for veterans housing.
Alexander Co., which focuses on historic redevelopments, announced plans for the Soldiers Home grounds in 2016.
In 2017, the firm received federal affordable housing tax credits for the Soldiers Home project.
Firms that receive the credits must provide apartments at below-market rents to people earning no more than than 60% of the local median income.
Other financing sources include state and federal historic preservation tax credits, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, the City of Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund and private foundations.
The Soldiers Home grounds were declared a national historic landmark by the National Park Service in 2011.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has the buildings on its list of most endangered historic places.
Budget constraints in recent years have made it difficult for the Department of Veterans Affairs to maintain Old Main, and it has fallen into disrepair.
The Milwaukee Soldiers Home is one of the nation's three original Soldiers Homes.