Upscale apartment conversion considered at historic Walker's Point industrial building

An industrial building in Walker's Point would be converted into 110 apartments under a preliminary proposal, a project similar to others in that neighborhood just south of Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.

Roers Investments, a firm based in the Minneapolis area, would lead the project to convert the five-story, 118,000-square-foot building at 214 E. Florida St.

That's according to an email from commercial real estate lender Walker & Dunlop Inc., which would help finance the project. A source provided that email to the Journal Sentinel.

Brian Roers, owner of Roers Investments, said Tuesday his firm, based in Long Lake, Minn., is considering the project's feasibility, but declined to provide any additional information.

The proposed development's financing would include state and federal historic preservation tax credits, according to Walker & Dunlop, which is based in Bethesda, Md.

It also could include a loan guaranteed by an insurance plan operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the email said. That program provides loan guarantees in return for fees from developers. It allows developers to obtain loans that are repaid over 40 years, which makes the periodic payments lower.

The building, owned by a local group affiliated with Jonas Properties, includes Paragon Printing and Graphics Inc. among its tenants.

It was built in 1900 in the neoclassical architectural style, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. It was once used by industrialist W.R. Franzen as a paper warehouse.

The project would join several other new Walker's Point apartment buildings, including other properties converted from industrial use.

That list includes two neighboring projects: The Barclay, 200 S. Barclay St., which is converting a five-story building and two attached three-story buildings into 115 apartments, and the 76-unit Oregon at South Water Works, which was completed in 2015 at 221 E. Oregon St.

Roers Investments last summer bought a large downtown parcel, between N. Milwaukee St. and N. Broadway, just south of E. Ogden Ave. The firm hasn't yet disclosed plans for that site.