Multi-use facilities generate tax revenues
By Robert Cloud
Sam McGovern-Rowen, the building project director for the Milwaukee Public Library, met with the New London Library and Museum Board on April 20.
He described how Milwaukee has generated nearly $1 million in additional tax revenues by developing four mixed-use libraries since 2014.
The city of Milwaukee, Mayor Tom Barrett and the Library Board of Trustees committed to investing $22.5 million to the redevelopment project.
The four libraries included apartments buildings that helped make the projects economically feasible.
“The city pays for the library,” McGovern-Rowen said. “Private developers own the apartments and pay property taxes.”
McGovern-Rowen noted a single library with 99 market-rate apartments generated $170,000 in tax revenues per year.
“We just kind of created (revenues) out of thin air on city property,” he said.
In addition to tax revenues from the apartments, the library branches save money by sharing maintenance costs, mechanicals and roof repair costs with the private developer since the shell of the building is a joint responsibility.
The new libraries have also helped encourage new development in their neighborhoods.
He noted retail development often follows residential development.
“You can’t put a price on a crane going up in a part of the city that hasn’t seen it in 50 years,” McGovern-Rowen said.
Before the Milwaukee Public Library began its building project, the library board considered closing some of its branches due to lack of patrons, budget issues and aging facilities.
Among those facilities was the Villard Square Branch, an aging, dilapidated building located in a low-income neighborhood.
“What if we did something different,” McGovern-Rowen said. “Instead of closing this branch, is there a way that we can make this feasible for the city?”
The new facility has a library on the first floor and three floors with 47 apartments that are designed for families where grandparents are the primary caregivers for their grandchildren.
At the time, McGovern-Rowen worked with Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, which spearheaded efforts to save the Villard library.
NWSCDC lobbied city officials and library board members, and raised $11 million through bank loans, funding from Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority and tax credits.
Milwaukee’s library board subsequently hired McGovern-Rowen to oversee the development of six more libraries.