Committee OKs Northridge debt bailout
Struggling district, two others will get boost from successful TIF
Funds from a successful tax incremental financing district would be used to bail out the troubled city financing plan to redevelop part of the former Northridge Mall, under a measure approved by a Milwaukee Common Council committee Tuesday.
The measure calls for using up to $2 million from the Grand Avenue financing district downtown for the Granville Station financing district, which was created to provide $4.4 millionin funding to redevelop the former Northridge Mall as a new retail center. The Granville Station district hasn’t generated enough revenue to pay off its debt.
“We feel like now is the time to pay this debt off so that we can move forward with other redevelopment efforts at the site,” said Dan Casanova, of the Department of City Development, at Tuesday’s meeting of the Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee.
Last week, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge William Pocan dismissed an appeal of the city’s demolition order brought by the former mall’s owner, U.S. Black Spruce Enterprise Group Inc. Assuming the company doesn’t appeal, the decision allows the city’s condemnation case to move forward, with Black Spruce ordered to demolish Northridge.
Pocan found that the company had not kept the mall in compliance with building codes and that there’s evidence that the site’s deteriorating buildings “pose significant safety and environmental hazards.”
The measure approved by the committee Tuesday also directs millions in funds from the Grand Avenue district to two other struggling districts created just before the Great Recession.
In one, about $2.7 million would go to a financing district created to provide about $2.9 million for development efforts along the West Historic Mitchell Street commercial corridor.
In the other, about $2.6 million would go to a district created to provide about $1.1 million for the first phase of the Bishop’s Creek affordable apartments development at 4765 N. 32nd St. and $300,000 for forgivable loans to homeowners.
The committee on Tuesday also approved new design standards for the Harbor District RiverWalk balancing the area’s industrial uses, future commercial development and environmental restoration. The public walkway along Milwaukee’s inner harbor and the Kinnickinnic River could eventually total around 3.5 miles.
The full Common Council meets on May 27.