County committee backs ground-lease plan with Jewish Family Services for McGovern Park senior center and housing

The Milwaukee County Parks and Culture Committee voted 4-2 on June 10 to recommend advancing a ground-lease term sheet that would allow Jewish Family Services Inc. (JFS) to develop a mixed-use building at McGovern Park that includes an on-site senior center and affordable senior housing.

County and project leaders said the proposal responds to large, countywide capital shortfalls and to local demand for affordable senior housing. Guy Smith, executive director of Milwaukee County Parks, told the committee the proposal "is built on planning and collaboration that has spanned our departments as well as months of community engagement." He and other presenters described the plan as a ground lease, not a sale, under which Milwaukee County would retain park ownership while JFS would finance and manage construction and building operations.

Why it matters: county finances and housing shortage

Speakers laid out a countywide funding gap that they say makes traditional county-funded replacement of the aging McGovern building unlikely. Joe Lamers, director of the Office of Strategy, Budget and Performance, told the committee county departments identified about $1.1 billion in capital needs over the next five years while the county expects roughly $375 million of bonding capacity for that period. "So we only have funding in our capital budget to support roughly 1 of the capital infrastructure needs," Lamers said. He said the project could leverage external financing to cover roughly a $20,000,000 building that the county otherwise would try to place on its five-year capital plan.

County strategy staff and the Commission on Aging framed the project as part of a broader effort called the "MKE hubs" vision, aimed at…