$16M project features commercial kitchen, apartments
A $16 million development is coming to Milwaukee’s near west side — transforming a large, vacant building into a mix of uses that includes a commercial kitchen, business incubator and affordable apartments.
The four-story building, at the northwest corner of West Wells and North 27th streets, will be transformed into a community center known as Concordia 27.
That’s according to a Wednesday announcement from officials including Gov. Tony Evers, who plans to invest $5 million, provided through federal American Rescue Plan Act fund, on the project.
That will allow Near West Side Partners Inc., a nonprofit group, to leverage an additional $5 million in private investment and enable construction work to begin immediately. Additional funds will come from other sources as that work progresses.
The project is to be completed by May 2023, said Rick Wiegand, who owns the building.
Concordia 27’s development is being led by neighborhood residents and is being managed by Wiegand’s firm, Wiegand Enterprises LLC; Near West Side Partners and project architect Quorum Architects.
It will bring together service providers and resources to provide access to nutritious food, health and wellness services, job training, entrepreneurial space, housing and transportation.
That includes making daily fresh, affordable meals-to-go to address food insecurity for more than 1,000 residents, and nutritious school meals for more than 15,000 low-income students at 106 schools in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine and Kenosha counties.
Those will be provided through a commercial, demonstration and incubator kitchen operated by the nonprofit Milwaukee Center for Independence.
The center uses its kitchen to provide workforce training for youth and adults with intellectual disabilities and previously incarcerated people.
The Concordia 27 kitchen also will host cooking demonstrations of healthy foods, and provide space for food business start-ups, said Heidi Chada, Milwaukee Center for Independence vice president.
In addition, Concordia 27 will provide space for a separate business incubator, along with makers space, operated by Fruition Milwaukee.
That new venture will be operated by Rachaad Howard, who also operates Cream City Print Lounge, a West Allis apparel print business.
Concordia 27 will include new offices for Near West Side Partners as well as a larger location for Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee, which provides wellness services.
Scaling Wellness in Milwaukee was launched by Marquette University President Mike Lovell and his wife, Amy, as a response to psychological trauma among people living in Milwaukee’s central city. It’s now based at the Ascension St. Joseph Hospital campus.
Finally, Concordia 27 will have 30 one- and two-bedroom affordable apartments for senior citizens and working families on the building’s upper floors.
“By serving as a centralized hub of collaboration, innovation, and service, Concordia 27 is both uplifting the local business community and increasing the level of services available to individuals throughout the near west side and beyond,” Evers told people gathered at the development site.