Green Bay authority approves Fire Station Flats development, lines up multiple funding sources

The Green Bay Redevelopment Authority approved a development agreement with General Capital to build a mixed-use project on South Broadway that will include a new fire station and 85 affordable housing units, and approved related funding commitments and contracts to advance cleanup, design and construction.

The vote moves forward a project the authority has been conceptualizing since it acquired the property in 2018 and that authority staff say combines public-safety and affordable-housing goals. The city and developer will use a mix of tools — tax-credit equity, TIF assistance, federal pass-through dollars and city-administered HOME funds — to assemble the project's financing.

Authority staff said the housing portion (not including the fire station) is estimated to cost about $32 million and that the city assessor values the housing component at about $7 million, a figure staff said reflects the lower revenue from affordable rents. To close an identified funding gap, the project team is relying on: 4% noncompetitive tax credits; tax-increment financing (TIF) assistance (including an 80% PAYGO reimbursement capped at $1.5 million and an upfront $1.6 million of TIF assistance); up to $3.5 million in ERA2 federal funds to be passed to the developer via Brown County; $1 million in HOME-ARP funds and $550,000 in HOME funds recommended for award by staff; and an $800,000 remediation loan through an EPA revolving loan program, among other sources.

Matt Schuler, vice chair, summarized the timing pressure behind the ERA2 award: "The window to spend these dollars is super narrow. We can only incur costs between April 17 and Sept. 30," he said, describing why the authority moved quickly to approve the subrecipient agreement that will allow the city to pass those funds through to the developer.

Sig Straubmanis, a General Capital representative, said the project must hit a series of near-term milestones to preserve feasibility. "Our ability to do that is gonna be the difference between feasibility and not," Straubmanis said, urging the authority to approve ground-lease and other items so the developer can pursue the ERA2 and other financing elements.

The authority also approved a professional services agreement with the architect/firm selected for the fire station's final design and construction administration; the initial schematic-design phase of that agreement is budgeted at about $207,000 (the full design and construction-services scope would total about $1,035,000). City staff said those design fees will be covered by previously allocated ARPA funds and other sources.

General Capital and city staff said they expect to close a ground lease by the end of the month that would allow continued EPA-funded cleanup work and would enable the developer to proceed with financing steps. Straubmanis said the project team currently expects a closing and a likely groundbreaking by June, dependent on final bids and financing. He added that the apartment construction and fire-station work are planned to be coordinated for construction efficiencies.

On project risks and the remaining funding gap, Straubmanis said recent cost savings reduced the shortfall to about $1.6 million and that the team is pursuing grant sources to fill that difference; he said debt was largely exhausted under the project's projected rent revenues. Saeed, another General Capital representative, told the authority that structural and certain engineering fees are included in the master development budget rather than the architect's fee, saying "structural is part of... covered in the master budget." The authority’s approvals were contingent on final legal review where noted.

The authority approved: the development agreement for the Fire Station Flats project; a subrecipient agreement with Brown County to pass through up to $3.5 million in ERA2 funds; awards of $1 million (HOME-ARP) and $550,000 (HOME) to General Capital for the project; a ground-lease exercise and related authorizations; and a professional-services agreement for fire station design. All items passed on voice votes with the board signaling aye.

City and developer officials repeatedly stressed the project's complexity and the interdependence of the fire-station and housing components. The city will continue to bring budgets and contract actions forward as schematic designs are completed and market bids are collected.