ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Five new buildings, with a $57 million price tag, highlight a proposal to redevelop Mike McCarthy Way in Ashwaubenon.
According to village documents, the proposal from Iowa-based developers, Merge Urban Development, includes 225 new residential units, a boutique hotel, a four-story office building, and 15 townhomes.
The village sent out a request for proposals for the two parcels of land, totaling 6.5 acres, in May. The sites are on the north and south sides of the street, between Holmgren Way and Ashland Avenue.
Merge is asking the village to gift it the land. It also notes in its proposal that 15 to 25 percent of its projects typically are funded through public incentives. The company plans to explore grants with the EDA, WEDC and other organizations.
Phase one of construction would include a five-story mixed-use building with 85 housing units, a four to five-story mixed-use building with 67 housing units, and the office building.
The other buildings pitched in the plan include a four-story mixed-use building with 58 housing units, a four-story boutique hotel, and 15 two-story townhome units.
Aaron Schuette, Ashwaubenon Community Development Director, tells FOX 11…
“The hotel and the other building further to the east are definitely down the line and there would need to be a lot more research done before another hotel would go up.”
Merge says it designs its buildings with the goal of reaching “attainable” rents. Schuette says the developers have not set rent rates.
“They’re focused on the smaller units. We look at some of the other projects in the village, those are larger units, more square footage.”
Micro units would be about 400 square feet and two-bedroom units would reach about 900 square feet.
In its proposal to the village, the developers explain bringing a ‘Main Street experience’ to the street with active first floors in the mixed-use buildings that would find success in all seasons.
“It means creating buildings that are close to the street, places where people can easily walk or bike back and forth,” said Schuette.
In explaining its approach to acquiring tenants, the developers say they would not compete with local entrepreneurs, but they do have a “proven network of entrepreneurs that we can tap if the community supports it: kombucha, fresh juice, donuts, fitness uses, fast food casual, etc.” Food halls and collaborative brew projects are also suggested as possibilities.
The village’s Community Development Authority will consider a six-month planning option with Merge at its meeting today.
The plans are being considered as 560 apartment units are also being built on the southeast side of Lambeau Field, between Bohemian Park Apartments at the corner of Holmgren Way and Morris Avenue and The Element Apartments at the corner of William Charles Court and Marvelle Lane.
The Green Bay Packers are also in the process of building 70 to 90 townhomes and a 150-unit apartment complex in the Titletown District, west of Lambeau Field.
