Milwaukee County committee recommends rejecting ground-lease term sheet for mixed-use senior center and affordable housing at McGovern Park

Milwaukee County supervisors rejected a proposal June 12 that would have authorized a ground-lease term sheet with Jewish Family Services Inc. (JFS) to build a mixed-use development at McGovern Park that would include a new senior center and affordable housing.

County departments presented the project as a solution to an aging McGovern Senior Center and a way to leverage outside funding — including a $2,000,000 congressional earmark and low-income housing tax credits — to deliver a modern senior center while adding affordable units targeted toward older adults. After more than two hours of presentations, public comment and three committee motions, the Health Equity, Human Needs and Strategic Planning Committee voted 3–2 to recommend rejection of the term sheet; the matter will appear on the County Board agenda with that committee recommendation.

County officials said the McGovern building — roughly 50 years old — faces significant deferred maintenance and that a standalone replacement would be unaffordable under the county’s current capital constraints. “There is not another stop on the road for the McGovern Senior Center. This is the end of the road,” Isaac Rowlett, Milwaukee County strategy director, told the committee, arguing that pairing a senior center with affordable housing opens financing options that would not otherwise exist.

The proposal, negotiated by Milwaukee County Parks with JFS, would keep the land in county ownership and establish a long-term ground lease for the southeast corner of McGovern Park, an area the presenters said is about 5.5 acres. Parks Director Guy Smith said the county would not sell parkland and that the agreement uses a lease rather than a conveyance. County staff described three contract phases captured in the term sheet: a ground lease for the land, a development agreement governing design and construction, and a future building lease for the senior-center space inside the finished building.

County budget staff and the Department of Administrative Services outlined the financial context motivating the proposal. The county’s five‑year capital needs are roughly $1.1 billion versus roughly $375 million of capacity under the county’s bonding cap, producing an estimated shortfall of about $743 million in the capital program. Joe Lamers, Office of Strategy, Budget and Performance director, said senior-center maintenance needs across the county total more than $20 million in the five-year plan and that the county cannot finance all slated building projects through traditional bonding. He described the McGovern proposal as “a creative solution” that uses external financing to provide a new community facility the county could not otherwise afford.

Housing staff explained how low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) would be integral to the financing. James Manthi, Administrator of Housing Services at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), told the committee, “We do have a $2,000,000 appropriation. This was a congressional earmark meant for affordable housing,” and said that the earmark needed a project identified quickly to meet HUD timing requirements. Manthi and other staff explained that LIHTC proceeds can be used to finance “community service” portions of a building — meaning some capital for the senior-center component could be included in a tax-credit financing that primarily funds the apartments.

JFS representatives described their organization as a mission-driven affordable-housing developer with experience integrating community space into housing projects. Dan Fleishman, vice president of housing at JFS, told the committee JFS embeds supportive services in its developments and manages properties on-site daily. County staff said JFS was selected through a request-for-qualifications process and pointed…