MILWAUKEE – Vangard Group is pleased to announce that it will convert the Historic Germania Building at 135 W. Wells St. into beautiful apartment homes with street-level commercial space. During an Oct 6th press conference Vangard was named a recipient of the 2014 High Impact Project Reserve and awarded $8.1 million in reserve tax credits by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) for this project. Vangard Group and its partners have a proven track record for expanding and developing innovative projects nationally with significant downtown catalytic development experience.
Vangard President Kalan Haywood believes, “As part of the city’s comprehensive plan to bring more housing to the downtown community, we are confident this project has the catalytic impact to spur future development and will create jobs for this community.”
Vangard will honor the legacy of the Germania Building, once the largest publisher of German-language newspapers in the nation. Haywood believes that high-level of recognition can be discovered again. “This can be the template for other cities on how to recharge and revive downtown areas;” he said. This is the heart of downtown – we can create spaces so people can live, work and play, he added.
Construction on the 18-month project is expected to begin in January 2015 and is expected to provide 73 construction jobs, according to Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch who was on hand to congratulate Vangard Group.
