By Heather Graves
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – The Shipyard District project in downtown Green Bay is again gaining traction after the city council approved a development agreement with Merge Urban Development Group for the construction of apartments at its meeting May 18.
Development Director Neil Stechschulte said this project marks the first private investment in the Shipyard District.
“This is one that has been worked on by staff for quite some time,” Stechschulte said.
The $21 million development, which will be located on the northern half of the Shipyard site, includes the construction of two four-story mixed-use buildings housing 225 market-rate studio, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments and 4,000 square feet of commercial space.
Merge representative Joy Hannemann said with completion a few years out, the firm expects project costs will drive rent prices.
“What I can tell you is what we are renting today in a similar community and similar product-type,” she said. “In the City of Oshkosh, we have studio units that are beginning around $800 a month. And our two-bedroom, two-bath, largest unit is around $1,700 a month.”
Stechschulte said construction is expected to begin in 2022, with the first building completed by the end of 2023, and the second completed by the end of 2025.
As part of the agreement, the city is on the hook for public amenities, including a multi-modal path along the waterfront, floating docks, kayak launch, other outdoor recreation amenities and a plaza.
Also included are the street improvements and extensions for Arndt and Bridge Streets.
“I think when this council discussed this back in 2018, (we were looking) at putting all of the public investments in on an upfront basis,” Stechschulte said.
He said that is no longer the case.
“We are using a phased approach for the public improvements in this case,” he said. “So we are not putting all the public improvements in, in advance. We are trying to schedule them along with the phasing of the development. And that was part of the negotiating that we had to work with Merge on. They certainly requested all the improvements to be put in upfront, but we simply said we are counting on the increment of the project to pay for as much of those improvements as we can.”
Stechschulte said there are three specific phases for public improvements.
“The first phase, we mentioned, kind of the waterfront improvements and street improvements,” he said. “Phase two is more of the great lawn and the park aspects of the project. And then the third phase of the project would be more related to the container park and kind of the entrepreneurship side of the project.”
Stechschulte said none of these projects have been bid out at this time.
“We certainly have concerns, I think as most public works, as well as private developers have, in terms of managing costs, with construction costs what they are right now,” he said. “But the phased approach certainly helps us considerably in terms of managing those costs.”
Brian Johnson, alderperson for District 9 where the shipyard project is located, said this is a good thing as it creates “more opportunity on a vacant piece of land.”
“I think it is important for us to recognize that this is a lot that is not highly desirable because it does have challenges,” Johnson said. “It has had environmental contamination. It sat in the floodplain, and so we have issues that need to be addressed there. And quite frankly, in that area right now there is not a lot that is attractive for new development. So that is the importance of a catalytic project like the Shipyard. So the Shipyard is doing exactly what we wanted it to do – attracting development like this.
Johnson said the interest is continuing.
“As we talked about with the Redevelopment Authority, there are another couple of developers that are teed up and interested in the site across the street,” he said. “So this is why we invest in these types of projects.