Business & Tech
Investment Into Shorewood's 'Ugliest Building,' Doesn't Pay Off for Village
The investment of more than $500,000 in public funds by the village into the Lakewood building on North Oakland Avenue hasn't pay off, after the building was sold for roughly half its assessed value.
In 2008 and 2009, Shorewood officials approved spending $550,000 to help pay for renovations at Lakewood Building and the relocation of Harley's men's clothing store into the five-story structure.
But, those investments — into what some have called the village's ugliest building at 3575 N. Oakland Ave. — haven't paid off the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Tom Daykin reports. The building sold last summer for $1.5 million — half of its assessed value.
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Just north over East Capitol Drive, the Lighthorse 4041 and Ravenna developments have sprung up on North Oakland Avenue, with the help of public monies. But those include guarantees on assessed values, Village President Guy Johnson told Daykin.
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Still, it serves as a lesson for the village, Daykin writes, which over more than two decades has spent over $20 million on improvements and development to attract new apartment buildings and businesses to the North Oakland Avenue business district.
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