Following a contentious approval process earlier this year, a Santa Monica, California-based developer is moving ahead on a workforce housing development at the site of two office buildings in Brookfield.
An affiliate of
Lincoln Avenue Capital purchased the 3.7-acre project site, located at 250 and 350 Bishops Way in the Bishop's Woods Office Park, for $3 million, according to state real estate records.
Currently occupied by two office buildings and a parking lot, developers are planning to raze the two buildings on the site and build a four-story building with 203 below-market-rate apartment units.
The two existing office buildings, built in 1975 and 1979, are mostly empty and have been described as obsolete by city staff.
The apartments, which include one-, two- and three-bedroom units, will have monthly rents priced at about $400 less than the average Brookfield apartment. Funded in part by a state grant, the apartments will be catered towards people making between 40% and 80% of the Brookfield median income, or between about $43,000 and $86,000 annually. The project is called
Flats at Bishop's Woods.
The developers are planning for eight of the ground-level apartments to be live-work units, where residents can have an office or studio connected to their apartment with parking in front. The project’s 312 parking spaces will include 243 underground stalls.
Some business groups, including the Waukesha County Business Alliance, have voiced support for the project, saying the
high housing prices in Brookfield and Waukesha County keep many people who work in Waukesha County priced out of living there.
Developers received final city approval for the project in January, but the process included opposition from neighbors, who submitted a petition against the project with more than 100 signatures, and an attempt by one alderman to censure a fellow alderman who opposed the project.
Lincoln Avenue Capital is anticipating an early 2024 construction start with units available by mid-2025.
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