Five years ago, a local community group proposed converting a former knitting factory just east of Mitchell Park into apartments for moderate-income families.
The plan died after the administration of Mayor John Norquist said the buildings should remain as a manufacturing property.
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Now city officials have given preliminary approval for a $600,000 grant to help create an apartment development at the same buildings. This time, the Norquist administration supported the proposal.
Why the change?
The developer of the failed plan says her proposal was done in by her testy relationship with Norquist.
But city officials say it’s just a matter of City Hall adjusting to changes in the commercial real estate market.
The latest plan for the former Brill Brothers Inc. clothing factory and two adjacent buildings was proposed by Madison-based Gorman & Co. Gorman has developed other projects with City Hall’s support, including the conversions of other older buildings into apartments on Milwaukee’s south side.
In 1997, a similar project proposed for the Brill buildings came from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The chamber is led by Maria Monreal-Cameron, who has clashed with Norquist on various issues.
“There’s no love lost between Norquist and myself,” said Monreal-Cameron. She believes the chamber failed to gain City Hall’s support because of “personality conflicts” between her and the mayor.
“Nonsense,” replied John Bratina, a spokesman for the Department of City Development.
Aside from a different developer, the real estate market has changed significantly since the chamber proposed its plan for the Brill buildings, Bratina said.
In 1997, department officials opposed the chamber’s plan to develop 70 apartments because they were concerned about the city’s scarce supply of industrial properties, Bratina said. The Brill buildings were viewed as better suited for manufacturing than residential use, he said.
Another concern five years ago was that the apartments would be too close to the Miller Compressing Co.. Department officials said apartment residents might complain about noise from the Miller Compressing facility.
In response, chamber officials said five years ago that noise levels within the apartments would be reduced by using top-quality windows, and by building a berm between the project and Miller Compressing.
Also, Monreal-Cameron said the Brill buildings were largely obsolete for manufacturing uses.
The department’s opposition to the project carried the day, with the Common Council voting against rezoning the property from industrial to residential.
Five years later, department officials now believe that older industrial buildings like the Brill property are obsolete for manufacturing and well-suited for residential use, Bratina said. That has become apparent with a number of conversion projects in the Historic Third Ward and Walker’s Point neighborhoods in recent years, he said.
As a result, the city’s new zoning code has created more flexibility for conversions of those buildings, including the Brill property, Bratina said.