A delayed affordable apartment development is starting construction on Milwaukee’s King Drive, where it will join another nearby apartment project and two others that are planned.
Five Points Lofts will feature 55 units, as well as 7,500 square feet of street-level retail space, on North King Drive between West Concordia and West Keefe avenues.
The five-story building is to open by May 2025.
Five Points Lofts will provide 46 units with below-market rents that initially range from $474 to $1,191 per month.
The development’s financing includes federal affordable housing credits. Developers that receive those tax credits, which are provided in annual competitions, generally must offer at least 85% of the building’s units at below-market rents to people earning no higher than 60% of the local median income.
Five Points Lofts has been in the works since 2020 when Martin Luther King Economic Development Corp. and KG Development Group LLC purchased vacant lots at 3317-3349 N. King Dr. and 456 W. Concordia Ave. from the city for $25,000.
The development was delayed when inflation caused construction prices to spike. Affordable housing developments in Wisconsin and other states obtained additional financing, with Five Point Lofts securing a tax incremental financing grant from the city and a state grant via the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
Project partners include Bader Philanthropies, which operates its offices just across King Drive from the development site, and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.
Five Points Lofts will be a few blocks north of another affordable apartment development under construction: 93 units that are part of the new King Library, 2933-2957 N. King Drive.
Two other nearby affordable apartment projects are seeking tax credits: the 67-unit Compass Lofts, to be developed at 3116 N. King Drive, and the 75-unit Union at Rose Park to be developed at 3030 N. King Drive.
“This is a great day for Milwaukee and the Harambee neighborhood and another step in the renaissance taking place along Dr. Martin Luther King Drive,” said Nicole Robbins, executive director of Martin Luther King Economic Development Corp.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, X and Facebook.