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 reimagining senior centers to achieve better access to services and to pair facilities with housing where feasible. Strategy director Isaac Rowlett said the county "cannot afford to maintain all of our buildings" in the current footprint and urged consideration of partnership models.

Project details and partner selection

The term sheet before the committee would allow a ground lease of McGovern Park land to a nonprofit developer. Presenters said the ground lease term contemplated a 60-year initial term with options to extend up to 99 years and that the county would continue to own the parkland. Jim Tarantino, deputy director for Milwaukee County Parks, said the lease is intended to shift building maintenance obligations from the county to the building owner and that any design would be subject to county approval and the county's recently updated sustainable building design standards.

After a request-for-qualifications process that drew 11 respondents, presenters said a selection committee "unanimously selected Jewish Family Services" as the county's preferred partner. County staff described JFS as a long-standing Milwaukee nonprofit with about 15 years of housing development experience and several completed affordable-housing projects.

Financing approach and schedule

Project proponents said the development would rely on a mix of sources typical for affordable housing: low-income housing tax credits, other gap financing and a $2,000,000 federal earmark that the county holds for a housing project. James Mathew, administrator of housing services, noted the earmark is one of the few county-controlled federal housing dollars that can be directed to projects inside the City of Milwaukee and said the county needs to identify a project and record it in federal systems so the funds are not recaptured.

Presenters warned that the LIHTC application cycle has deadlines and that the county and JFS hoped to align an application for the December 2025 cycle. They said final award decisions would likely occur in mid-2026 and, if awarded, construction could be expected to begin in 2027.

Community engagement and concerns

County staff described multiple rounds of outreach going back to 2017, including listening sessions in May 2025. The Office of Equity summarized recent outreach: of 35 written feedback forms collected during the May listening sessions, 20 percent said they supported the proposal and a majority raised concerns about safety, parking, and preserving park green space. Door-to-door canvassing of roughly 209 houses immediately around the park reached 39 residents directly; staff said 48 percent of those respondents supported the project, 41 percent were neutral and 13 percent opposed.

Presenters repeatedly stressed that no parkland would be sold and that the county would retain approval authority over site design and long-term affordability provisions. Park staff said the term sheet would require JFS to limit private use of parkland, manage noise and lighting, maintain trees where possible, and meet county sustainable-design standards. They also said the concept would move the new structure slightly south and east to open access to the lagoon.

Opposition at the meeting focused on park preservation and precedent. Dozens of residents and a number of supervisors said parks should remain unbuilt and expressed concern about long-term maintenance, safety, and the loss of public open space. Several community speakers said they strongly preferred a new senior center without housing or asked the county to look for non-park sites.

Committee action and vote

Supervisor Steve Taylor moved to recommend adoption of the file advancing the term sheet. The committee roll-call recorded the motion as carried 4-2: yes votes from Supervisor Taylor, Supervisor Coggs Jones, Supervisor Ekblad and the chair; no votes from Supervisor Martin and Supervisor O'Connor. The committee vote moves the term sheet forward to other board consideration but does not itself finalize any lease or LIHTC application. The committee and administration said many subsequent approvals would be required, including zoning, grant awards, LIHTC awards and final board authorizations.

What remains unsettled

County staff said important details remain to be resolved in later stages: the final building design, a detailed financing plan including LIHTC allocations and other gap financing, a binding long-term affordability covenant, formalized maintenance responsibilities, and how to distribute parking and manage traffic. Staff also said any sediment or environmental issues affecting the park would be addressed during design and permitting. Presenters said they would return to the board for specific approvals at later steps and continue community engagement through design.

Ending

The committee recommendation is an early approval step to permit the county and JFS to pursue LIHTC and other funding and to start zoning and design work. The county presentation and the ensuing discussion highlighted the tension between preserving parkland and using partnerships to meet urgent capital and housing needs; the project now moves to further board and public review before any final contract or construction occurs.