Monroe Plaza at 400 N. Monroe Ave. ― a downtown apartment complex that gives elderly and disabled residents a place to call home through federal Section 8 housing vouchers amidst a national housing crisis ― could be a California-based affordable housing developer’s first Wisconsin project.
SDG Housing Partners secured an initial commitment of up to $27.5 million in government bonds through the Green Bay Housing Authority after the authority liked its first look at renovation plans on June 19. The developer, once given the bond revenue, will be wholly responsible for paying the debt back, according to the initial resolution.
The authority had anticipated the presentation by Michael Arman, SDG’s director of development, and attorney Lynda Templen would answer questions about the developer’s vision for the 1970s-era building ― which it did ― but some members were also left with nagging concerns about property management for the vulnerable population of residents.
Since its founding in 2016, SDG has bought and rehabbed 45 other affordable housing projects across the country, according to the housing authority’s June 19 agenda. SDG would bring its “passion to recreate communities to the highest standards” to Green Bay as it did in another Section 8 housing project in La Puente, Californialocated in Los Angeles County, said Arman to the housing authority. And in much the same way as in La Puentethe developer was coming before the Green Bay Housing Authority asking for tax-exempt revenue bonds to, “try to make (Monroe Plaza) look like a modern, market-rate property,” Arman said.
Arman described a plan with freshly installed windows, an energy-efficient roof, a paint job and new light fixtures. There will be a gazebo, resident gardens, “colorful” landscaping, a dog park, resident-tended gardens, a grilling area and an ADA-compliant sidewalk. In the interior common areas, there will be a renovated community kitchen, tables for bingo, billiards and cards, a library, a TV space, and computer stations ― all ADA-accessible. Laundry and management offices would be renovated, and each floor adorned with art. Security cameras would be upgraded and key fob access at the entrance would add to the security measures.
“Just because it’s affordable housing, there’s no need to look like affordable housing,” Arman said, appearing to refer to the connotations over decades of public housing units being associated with squalor and having sparse design ― though, their stripped back construction had been considered an architectural model when they were first built and appropriately functional, not frilly, for its working-class residents.
Monroe Plaza, 400 N. Monroe Ave. in Green Bay, may get a renovation if the city approves a developer’s vision for the 1970s-era building.
Oshkosh-based ACC Management Group would manage the newly renovated Monroe Plaza, and the process of hiring six on-site staff members was already underway, Arman said. There would be two office personnel, a service coordinator, two maintenance personnel and a janitor at Monroe Plaza Mondays through Fridays, according to Arman.
Residents would remain on-site in what the developer called “hotel units”: several furnished, unoccupied apartments inside the complex that residents would move to until their own apartment rehabilitation was finished. The developer would have to submit documentation to the Department of Housing and Urban Development as it was the federal department’s property, Arman said, adding that “there will be no permanent relocation, just temporary relocation.”
The developer had not yet walked through to inspect the conditions of the apartments, but, “there will be some unit work. That scope will be determined a little bit later,” Arman said. To do so, the developer, “will have to go around to every single unit to understand what we’re dealing with.”
Asked by housing authority members how it knew it would need $27.5 million in bond money if the condition of the apartments was unknown and there were no plans presented to rehab the apartments, Arman said the developer generally knew the scope of work and that the money would also go toward rehabbing apartment units.
Templen added the $27.5 million was an “aggressive, not-to-exceed” estimate for the project, and that a more defined scope of work, renderings and project details would be hashed out before the housing authority adopts a second, final resolution.
“And so we will be working through those details, and undoubtably when we come back with the final resolution, it will be some other amount,” Templen said. “It won’t be $27.5 (million). Of course, we want to maximize it, to the extent that we can.”
This first resolution was the “first step” to getting further financing for the project, Templen said. The developer will be able with the resolution to go to a bank willing to lend to SDG, Templen added.
For-profit affordable housing developers must also go to the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority for what’s called a “volume cap,” according to Green Bay Housing Authority executive director Cheryl Renier-Wigg. The cap is a federal limit to how many tax-exempt bonds a state can issue to prevent misuse. Templen said the developer expects to hear back from WHEDA the size of the volume cap by the end of June.
Depending on when the volume cap and the bank commitment were known, the developer could be in a position to close on buying the property by mid-September, Templen said. And with all documents in hand, Templen said the developer will come back for a final resolution with final bond figures from the housing authority, as well as an authorization from the city itself.
Remodeling would begin by summer 2026, according to Arman, by which time the developer hopes to have secured additional tax credits to finance the project.
Once Arman and Templen had left with the initial resolution approved, several members of the housing authority expressed concerns with ACC Management Group being the property manager, citing anecdotal experiences of how it treated disabled residents and a lack of communication. However, there had been plenty of issues at the complex over the years from security, to bedbugs, to management, according to Renier-Wigg and former City Council member Randy Scannell; the new choice of management, it was agreed, could be brought up at a later time.
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay Housing Authority gives first OK for Monroe Plaza renovation
