Walker’s Point

Nearly 90 apartments in 4-story building

Nearly 90 apartments in four-story building planned.

A Milwaukee developer who is completing an affordable apartment building in Walker’s Point is planning a similar project just six blocks to the west.

Brandon Rule said he wants to develop a four-story building, with just under 90 units, on city-owned parcels at 1313 and 1329-1331 W. National Ave.

The development would cost around $18 million, Rule said Friday.

His firm, Rule Enterprises LLC, would get an exclusive right to negotiate a purchase of those city-owned properties, under a new proposal.

Rule wants to buy the properties to construct an affordable housing development, according to that proposal. It needs Common Council approval.

The city acquired the parcels last year through property tax foreclosure.

The property at 1313 W. National Ave. has a 19,100-square-foot building on a 43,300-square-foot lot, according to the Department of City Development.

Just to its west, at 1329-1331 W. National Ave., is a 14,300-square-foot building on a 28,800-square-foot lot.

Rule said he plans to demolish the buildings to make way for the new apartment building. Those combined parcels would create a lot of more than 1.5 acres.

He hopes to begin construction in the fall of 2019 if the development obtains financing and city approvals. The building would take about a year to construct.

The properties were owned by Esperanza Unida Inc., a nonprofit worker training group that ran into financial trouble.

Another former Esperanza Unida property, a four-story office building at 611 W. National Ave., was earlier acquired by the city through property tax foreclosure.

It was sold to developers who converted the historic building into the 36unit Mercantile Lofts, which opened in 2016.

Rule plans to seek federal affordable housing credits for his planned project in the 1300 block of West National Avenue.

If the project receives tax credits, it would be required to provide at least 85 percent of its apartments to people with incomes no higher than 60 percent of the area median income.

Rule is completing 704 Place, a fourstory, 60-unit apartment building at 704 W. National Ave.

704 Place, which includes 51 affordable units, is replacing a warehouse that was razed. It is to open by the end of the year, Rule said.

He said a significant number of units have already been leased.