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Riverwest apartments, food center look to spring construction start
An affordable apartment development with a commercial-grade kitchen to help launch new food businesses is hoping for a spring construction start now that’s securing additional public funding.
The 2,500-square-foot Riverwest Food Accelerator would be developed on East North Avenue, just across North Commerce Street from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s RiverView Residence Hall. It would be on the ground floor of a four-story, 91-unit affordable apartment building.
The accelerator will host food-oriented activities — recognizing the neighborhood’s need for access to healthy foods and food education.
Developers General Capital Group and KG Development Group LLC announced their plans two years ago, with the project later securing federal affordable housing tax credits.
Developers who receive tax credits must generally provide at least 85% of a building’s apartments at below-market rents to people earning no higher than 60% of the local median income. Those credits are sold to generate cash, with the developers securing commercial loans and other funds to complete their financing packages.
But the Riverwest development, like many others throughout Wisconsin, has been delayed because it needs more funding as inflation drives up construction costs − and as interest rates on commercial loans increase.
The project recently got some good news with Milwaukee’s Housing Trust Fund set to provide $1 million for the $26.7 million development.
That grant requires Common Council approval, with the council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee to review the trust fund recommendations at its Tuesday meeting.
“We are working on filling the remaining financing gap and are optimistic now that we are that much closer,” Linda Gorens-Levey, a General Capital partner, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A spring construction start would result in the food accelerator and apartments being completed by roughly late summer or early fall of 2024, said David Weiss, a General Capital partner.
Along with helping launch food-oriented businesses, the accelerator will also provide cooking classes for residents and other community residents.
Milwaukee’s Housing Trust Fund Advisory Board is recommending $8.8 million for 12 projects − leveraging more than $121 million in local construction and rehabilitation work over the next year, said Ald. Michael Murphy, advisory board chair. The grants are coming from $10 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.
The largest grant, $1.5 million, would be provided for the 93-unit King Library Apartments, in the 2900 block of North King Drive. That $32.2 million development, which is being done by General Capital and Emem Group LLC, includes replacing the current King Library with a new library branch.
Also, Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity, Revitalize Milwaukee and ACTS Housing, which would each receive $1.25 million for their work on buying and renovating homes for people with low incomes.
Other recommended grants include $783,765 to Movin’ Out Inc. and Rule Enterprises for a $21.4 million, 79-unit apartment building under construction at 1887 N. Water St.; $500,000 to KG Development LLC for its planned $6.6 million rehabilitation of a 40-unit building at 2436 N. 50th St., and $500,000 for the $13.4 million Bronzeville Creative Arts and Technology Hub, featuring 54 apartments and production space for filmmakers, musicians and other creatives that Fit Investment Group LLC and Cinnaire Solutions Corp. plan to develop north of West North Avenue and west of North Sixth Street.
“The Housing Trust Fund has made a significant difference for Milwaukee families and neighborhoods, by making supportive housing, home ownership and rental housing more affordable for people who want to live here,” Murphy said, in a statement.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at [email protected] and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Virginia restaurant refuses service to conservative advocacy group
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A Virginia-based conservative Christian advocacy group was turned away from a local restaurant just an hour before their reservation last week.
A representative of the Family Foundation said he was frustrated after the group was turned away from Metzger Bar and Butchery last Wednesday. The group claims the refusal had to do with their religious beliefs.
According to Todd Gathje, Director of Government Relations for the Family Foundation, one of the owners of Metzger called a representative of the Family Foundation about an hour before the reservation time, saying that the group would not be dining in the restaurant.
“We’ve had events at restaurants all over the city and have never encountered a situation like this,” Gathje said. “It’s no secret that we are very much involved in the public policy debate on a number of controversial issues. But we never expected that we would be denied service at a restaurant based on our religious values or political beliefs.”
For businesses like restaurants, federal and state laws do not allow discrimination based on protected classes such as race, religion, sex and more, as defined by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It’s not yet clear if this incident falls under one of those protected classes.
In a Facebook post the following day, Metzger wrote that the restaurant has “very rarely refused service to anyone who wished to dine with us.”
However, the restaurant added, “We have always refused service to anyone for making our staff feel uncomfortable and unsafe and this was the driving force behind our decision.”
The restaurant noted that many staff members were LGBTQ or women and that it believed the Family Foundation “seeks to deprive women and LGBTQ+ persons of their basic rights in Virginia.”
Gathje has previously written for the Family Foundation about a stalled effort in 2021 to remove an unenforceable provision of the Virginia Constitution — invalidated by the US Supreme Court in 2015 — that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, saying that removing it would be open the door to “polygamous, incestuous, kinship or even child marriages.”
Gathje said he thought it was unfair of the restaurant to deny service over the group’s religious beliefs.
“It was a very intolerant message being conveyed,” Gathje said.
The Family Foundation says it is open to the possibility of a sit down so that something like this will never happen again.
“We would welcome an opportunity to have a discussion with them,” Gathje said. “Meet with them in a private setting where you can have a heart-to-heart about some of the issues.”
8 News reached out to Metzger Bar and Butchery for an interview before publication and did not receive a response.
Metro State students, pilots and volunteers airlift food, toys and supplies for veterans and their families
Metro State University students, pilots and volunteers loaded food, toys and supplies into more than two dozen aircraft at the Centennial Airport on Sunday.
It was all part of the annual VFW Charity Airlift.
Mitchell Johnson is on the Metro State flight team, and he’s volunteering his time, aircraft, and fuel costs to help deliver much-needed relief to veterans and their families.
“I think we have about seven thousand pounds of food and supplies going out today,” said Johnson. “So, we’re all very excited to come out and get to both, kind of mashing our hobby and our passion for aviation, with being able to help people throughout the holidays.”
For 12 years, the VFW Charity Airlift has worked with the Colorado Aviation Business Association and Metro State’s Precision and Aerobatics flight teams to make the event happen. And this isn’t just any donation drop, its focus is getting to those people in rural communities, which many times are hard to reach.
“We get so many donations here within the metro area, but our rural communities are really underserved, so we found a way as pilots, one that we can give back to our community, by collecting donations here in the metro area, and then providing them,” said Chris Swathwood, with CABA. “That’s really what we want our students to see, not only is it the career and future but aviation can be used in such a positive way to really help support our country and our community.”
Sunday’s special flight is taking Johnson to Pueblo, and he’s hoping his kindness and the kindness of others will go far beyond.
“Do your part, and as a whole, you can make a difference,” he said.