A portion of Aurora Sinai Medical Center's former western campus would be converted into 52 apartments under a new proposal. Commonwealth Development Corp. wants to create 34 apartments for the elderly in an empty building at 2195 W. State St., now owned by City on a Hill Inc., a non-profit church group.
Commonwealth also would develop 18 apartments in a new 18,000-square-foot structure that would be built adjacent to the vacant 34,600-square-foot hospital building, said Christopher Jaye, vice president of the Fond du Lac-based firm. Commonwealth would provide assisted living services to the elderly renters, Jaye said. He said rent for the one- and two-bedroom units would range from around $275 to $650 a month.
Commonwealth will seek federal affordable housing tax credits to help finance the project, Jaye said. Those tax credits are given to apartment development firms that agree to rent some of their newly built units to low- and moderate-income tenants. In Wisconsin, the credits are provided annually through a competitive process operated by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.
The firm also will seek federal and state credits given to firms that preserve historic buildings. The former hospital building has an Art Deco style and was built in 1941. If Commonwealth obtains credits, construction would begin next summer, Jaye said. The apartments would be available by the summer of 2009.
Commonwealth, which has developed several affordable apartment projects in Milwaukee and other Wisconsin cities, would buy the building from City on a Hill.
That group, sponsored by the Wisconsin/Northern Michigan District Council of the Assemblies of God, operates its ministry, education and mission programs from another building at the former hospital complex. The hospital buildings became vacant in 1998 after Aurora Sinai consolidated at its eastern campus, at 945 N. 12th St.
The 18.5-acre former western hospital complex, which is west of N. 20th St., between W. Kilbourn Ave. and W. State St., has buildings with about 700,000 square feet. Part of that former hospital campus is used by a charter school, Milwaukee Academy of Science, 2100 W. Kilbourn Ave.
A former hospital building at 2200 W. Kilbourn Ave. was converted in 2005 into Historic Lofts on Kilbourn, a 99-unit apartment building owned by Madison-based Gorman & Co. Gorman received affordable housing and historic preservation tax credits to help finance that development.
Source: JSonline.com