Welcome to Gorman :: News & Awards

Gorman & Co. Inc. will receive $7.5 million in affordable housing tax credits from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to build the first residential development at The Brewery project in downtown Milwaukee.

The Madison development firm that specializes in affordable housing plans to build a 95-unit, multifamily development targeting low- to moderate-income entrepreneurs and artists in its life-work loft development called Blue Ribbon Lofts. It will be part of the development of the former Pabst Brewing Co. complex.

The affordable housing project at The Brewery will be Gorman's second live-work development in downtown Milwaukee. In 2006, the company completed the 85-unit Park East Enterprise Lofts, which is 100 percent occupied, said Chris Laurent, Gorman's Wisconsin market president.

"The market for these units is surprising us," said Laurent.

Gorman & Co. has a waiting list of 150 people seeking residence at the Park East Enterprise Lofts. The Blue Ribbon Lofts will be open for occupancy in September 2008.

"This is a catalytic development for The Brewery and downtown Milwaukee," said Antonio Riley, executive director of WHEDA.

Gorman & Co.'s initial request for $8 million in tax credits was denied by WHEDA last April. The agency worked with the developer to lower some of the rents for affordable units, making the project available for the tax credits, said Riley.

Gorman will receive a partial allocation of $2.5 million in tax credits for 2007. The remaining $5 million will come from the agency's 2008 tax credit cycle.

Of the 95 units at the Blue Ribbon Lofts, 26 will be market-rate apartments. The remaining units are for income-qualified people with monthly rents starting at $553. These are people who earn 50 percent of the Milwaukee County median income.

Under Gov. Jim Doyle's administration, WHEDA has provided $47.3 million in tax credits or financing to seven projects in or near downtown Milwaukee, totaling 659 units of affordable housing. Gorman & Co.'s plan to convert the former Pabst keghouse into the Blue Ribbon Lofts is one of several announced proposals for The Brewery. Joseph Zilber's The Brewery Project L.L.C., the lead developer of the 21-acre brewing complex, is trying to convince a number of Chinese businesses to lease space in a Milwaukee International Trade Center building proposed for The Brewery site.

Also, local investors Charles Trainer and Max Dermond have agreed to buy the 55,000-square-foot former boiler house, which they plan to convert into street-level retail space and upper-level offices.

Other possible uses at the former brewery include an international corporate training site operated by Johnson Controls Inc., and a brewpub developed by local investor Jim Haertel and his partners.