City of Green Bay
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A proposal for luxury apartments in Green Bay’s downtown will be moving forward, while a plan to build affordable homes for veterans in need has hit a snag.
Downtown luxury apartments
Green Bay’s city council unanimously approved the development agreement Tuesday night for the eight-story luxury apartment proposal in the heart of the city’s downtown.
City officials have long coveted a high-density development on the proposed site, commonly known as the Adams Street parking lot. Now that it is here, neighbors are asking for the city’s help to make sure it works. That includes Spring Lake Church, whose front entrance would currently be about 13 feet from the building.
“For our seniors, for our moms, for our infants, please help us,” said Jack Guerra, Spring Lake’s lead pastor. “Please help us for our teens on weekdays, children and young families who will have to walk blocks in the winter or a handicap who may have to fight, or keep fingers crossed, for parking nearby. These things can be done. I’d ask the city to please help us.”
“I’ve committed myself to supporting a façade improvement grant application and project related to reorienting your front door over to Adams Street,” said Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich.
Gateway Collective will welcome its first tenants in July to the 72 units it is currently spending $16 million to construct, mostly for low income and workforce residents, inside the same Bay Lake City Center Building as Spring Lake Church.
“Consider how to ensure natural light into our units is not impeded just because our tenants, who are also your constituents, cannot afford the same high-end rental units proposed next door,” said Alexia Wood, the CEO of Gateway Collective.
Business owners along Washington Street also voiced concerns and support.
“I understand we need a tax base, I get that, but I think this is going to have a really detrimental effect for retail establishments down in this corridor at least for the next two years,” said Michael Joyce, the owner of Player 2 Arcade Bar.
“260 plus permanent residents in this development site will spend and stimulate the downtown Green Bay area in such a positive and exciting way, just much more than I think a parking lot could ever do,” said Bryan Baumler, the owner of Heights Pub & Parlor.
The council ultimately decided the positives far outweighed any potential negatives.
“When you have market rate, it frees up units downstream and we do have that problem here in our community,” said Brian Johnson, Green Bay’s City Council President.
Johnson introduced an amendment to the development agreement that was passed for an alley between the new development and the Bay Lake building to be public in an attempt to prevent any negative activity there.
New Land Enterprises, the Milwaukee developer behind the proposal, will be getting at least $8.5 million in assistance from the city. That’s about 15 percent of the minimum $55 million amount that will be spent on construction.
“If you want to get a project done right now in this climate when labor is high, materials are high, interest rates are high, TIF is the only way to get this done,” said Johnson.
The new building is expected to add $38 million to the property’s value.
The council also passed zoning approval that clears the development from the normal required square footage for units and allows residential units on the first floor of a mixed-use development.
Tiny homes for veterans
The city council unanimously voted to have city staff to look for alternate sites to put a village of tiny homes for veterans in need.
Veterans 1st of NEW was looking to build 21 small homes on 3.46 acres of county-donated land near the Green Bay VA Clinic, but the plans received heavy opposition from nearby residents in the Schmitt Park Neighborhood Association.
Neighbors there voiced concerns about the abilities of the nonprofit behind the effort, as well as excavating with the nearby Brown County Poor Farm Cemetery.
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