Developers on more than a dozen affordable-housing projects in Milwaukee County have applied for nearly $19 million worth of tax credits.
Applicants includes a
massive adaptive-reuse project in Milwaukee's Harbor District led by Kenosha-based Bear Development.
The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority this afternoon released the list of applicants vying for tax credits that would assist them in financing their projects. WHEDA awards projects with federal 9% housing tax credits and the state and federal 4% tax credits.
For the 2021 awards cycle, WHEDA announced it had received 54 applications statewide seeking a total of $57.7 million in tax credits. This included 34 projects seeking $29.6 million in federal 9% tax credits, and 20 projects seeking $16.2 million in state 4% credits and $11.9 million in federal 4% credits.
Altogether, the projects would build 1,542 affordable housing units, according to a news release.
WHEDA does not expect a significant increase in the amount of tax credits to administer this year compared to 2020, when it had $31.9 million.
“The demand for these highly competitive tax credits indicates a continuing, acute shortage of affordable housing throughout Wisconsin,” Joaquín Altoro, chief executive of WHEDA, said in a statement.
Projects proposed in Milwaukee County would create 1,111 housing units, 996 of which would be set aside for low-income families.
Bear Development applied for tax credits in each category for its Harbor District project, which would turn a collection of old warehouse buildings into approximately 300 apartments southeast of East Becher and South First streets. The buildings to be redeveloped include the historic Filer & Stowell woodworking and pattern shop.
Although part of the same redevelopment project, Bear Development applied to the 4% housing tax credits program for the Filer & Stowell Foundry Lofts, which would create 78 units (66 affordable). Meanwhile, it applied to the 9% program for the 70-unit (59 affordable) Filer & Stowell Machine Shop Lofts.
In all, Bear Development is seeking $2.58 million in housing tax credits for the project.
It also applied for $2 million total in 4% state and federal tax credits for a separate projects, called Michigan Street Commons. The project involves new construction of 140 units in the city of Milwaukee.
Other Milwaukee County projects vying for tax credits include:
- Century Building phase two (38 units, seeking $645,000)
- Riverwest Workforce Apartments & Food Accelerator (91 units, seeking $1.37 million)
- Westlawn Renaissance V (44 units, seeking $931,000)
- Bethesda Cornerstone Village (68 units, seeking $1 million)
- Garden District Apartments (60 units, seeking $1.16 million)
- Townhomes at Carver Park (122 units, seeking $1.01 million)
- Bronzeville scatter sites (30 units, seeking $515,000)
- River Parkway Apartments & Townhomes phase two (50 units, seeking $756,000)
- Five Points Lofts (55 units, seeking $800,000)
- Edison School Apartments (75 units, seeking $1.23 million)
- Westlawn Renaissance VII (97 units, seeking $2.69 million)
- MLK Library Apartments (93 units, seeking $2.62 million)
WHEDA has been the sole administrator for federal affordable-housing tax credits in Wisconsin since the program began in 1986. It has also been the sole administrator for the state program, which began in 2018.
The tax-credit programs provide incentives through the federal and state tax codes that encourage developers to build affordable housing.
In exchange for receiving the tax credits, developers agree to reserve all or a portion of their housing units for low- and moderate-income households for at least 30 years. Developers then sell the tax credits to private investors to obtain funding.
Once the housing project is available to tenants, investors can claim the tax credit as a dollar-for-dollar reduction of federal or Wisconsin income taxes owed over a 10-year period.
