The City of Waukesha’s Common Council has approved a zoning change to the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Waukesha campus advancing the redevelopment of the property to accommodate residential use.
The property was reclassified as mixed-use residential by the city on Tuesday evening, a decision following a March
announcement to close campus in June of 2025.
The 75.9-acre property at 1500 N. University Drive is owned by
Waukesha County which has leased the property to UW-Milwaukee since 1965. The lease was set to expire in 2040. The next steps in the redevelopment process include negotiation with the University of Wisconsin's Board of Regents on the termination of the lease. The objective is to complete lease termination negotiations to align with the sale of the property, said
Dale Shaver, director of parks and land use for Waukesha County.
All three buildings on campus totaling just over 176,000 square feet will be demolished. Demolition is expected to cost around $6.6 million if all material is hauled offsite.
“While the buildings were well maintained for the last several decades by the county and the university system, they're just not suited for conversion,” said Shaver.
The county will sell the property to a developer. A Waukesha County request for proposals will open in late February and with “significant interest” in the property, a developer is expected to be contracted by the end of June, Shaver said.
In planning for residential redevelopment, Waukesha County had enlisted the help of several local developers to hash out ideas for the property. Almost all developers, including
Wangard Partners,
Siepmann Realty,
Bear Real Estate Group and
Neumann Companies decided that a residential development is the most ideal use for the land. Feedback from developers as well as a study conducted by the City of Waukesha indicates that the area requires more workforce housing for households with a yearly income of roughly $100,000.
Details on the timeline of construction will be set once a developer is contracted, but it is likely that no construction will begin until late spring or summer of 2026, according to Shaver.
