Six years ago, the former Bucyrus campus — east and west of the tracks — was 100% vacant, a ghost town in the middle of the city facing an uncertain fate in uncertain times.
Would it go the route of so many white elephant industrial complexes across the country and sit vacant for decades, awaiting new owners and new life? Would it be razed? Or would the owners (and the city) settle for something less than the site’s true potential for some quick cash?
Thankfully the answer has been an emphatic “hell no” to all of those questions.
Instead, we are witnessing a complete turnaround of this property in less than seven years, with an innovative mixed-use development taking shape, one piece at a time. The latest (and final) addition: 171 new apartments as part of a $50 million development by Scott Crawford Inc. announced on Monday.
Check out coverage from the Journal Sentinel, Business Journal, and Urban Milwaukee.
From the Journal Sentinel …
Crowley and South Milwaukee Mayor Jim Shelenske both thanked El-Amin for his persistence and hard work to make the project happen. Shelenske said projects like these are what can be accomplished when multiple levels of government work together.
Crowley told reporters the development furthers the County’s vision “of developing safe, quality, and affordable housing.” “This project is a continuation of our work to make critical investments in suburban communities to provide residents equitable access to affordable housing and homeownership opportunities,” Crowley said.
El-Amin said South Milwaukee was one of the last suburbs in the area to be developed and that’s one thing that attracted him to the project. “I like the areas other people neglect,” he said of his decision to develop in the city. He added he is passionate about the area and the people, and his biggest hurdle was finding partners that shared that passion.
Public-private partnerships to redefine a downtown — that’s the story here. The affordable housing portion of this is important, and needed. But we can’t lose sight of the significance of the development as perhaps the final chapter of a book that wasn’t even being written in 2016.
Think of what’s happened on this campus since then. The purchase, rehabiliitation and transformation of the former Bucyrus Employee Club into the Bucyrus Club and Museum. The relocation of the Steele Solutions headquarters. The opening of Styled Aesthetic, showing there was room for the “little guy” in this redevelopment. And now a transformational project that will inject new life into our city center in a way our city (in a way most cities) hasn’t seen before.
This is a success story of a generation.
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