2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land - 119

vision for the valley and was fortunate to be
able to use a single source of funds to purchase
properties and consolidate them to sell
to buyers who maintained the vision, then use
the sales proceeds to do it again.
Consistency and strength of leadership
allowed the project to hold true to its plan.
MVP had three presidents in 22 years. After
Donald Schuenke passed away in 2004,
Mick Hatch of Foley & Larder, who had been
involved with the project since the beginning,
became the second president. Hatch
is thought of as one of the best real estate
attorneys in the state of Wisconsin and probably
beyond, MVP board member Julie Penman
noted in an interview for this case study. He
was committed to the project and his firm had
put in many hundreds of thousands of dollars
in pro bono staff time. He was president of
MVP until 2016, when Bruce Keyes, a brownfield
expert who is also an attorney at Foley &
Lardner, became the current president. Keyes
was also a founding member of MVP. Keyes is
additionally a founder of the nonprofit Friends
of Hank Aaron State Trail and has been influential
in building Milwaukee's system of bike
paths and introducing bike sharing. Others,
like Peter McAvoy of Sixteenth Street Community
Health Center and representatives from
the Potawatomi Tribe, were influential partners
on the board.
According to Julie Penman, MVP has a very
formal set of board guidelines. It is strategic
in its mix of members, seeking a balance of
one-third government stakeholders, one-third
private interests, and one-third community
representatives. The guidelines also list skill
sets deemed necessary to see the projects to
completion.
Another key to the success of the project
is that RACM was willing to take on the role
of developer of the project. Cities usually
avoid such risk, but RACM knew that the only
way to get anything done with this problem
property would be to bring the property to an
environmentally clean and salable level. Thus,
it was able to attract the kind of highperforming
eco-industrial companies it
wanted.
Having control of the land was another of
the reasons the project could be successful.
This allowed the city to hold to its vision and
strategic plan for 20 years without caving
in to short-term economic pressures. But it
was not without controversy, and it certainly
put the city in a riskier position. Hatch notes
that it took some convincing to get several
branches of the city on board with the purchase.
No single branch wanted to be responsible
for a failure. But when both the head of
the Common Council and the mayor agreed,
the city began condemnation proceedings.
Cultivation of political will was also important
in forming the tax increment district that
became the largest financing source for the
project.
A plan for activation of the park from
before it was built was important in keeping
the park safe and fostering a community
around it. Menomonee Valley Partners and the
Urban Ecology Center brought students into
the park as it was developing to plant native
plants and trees, fostering a sense of belonging
and ownership. Partners engaged the next
generation as much as possible, even if the
project took longer, reasoning that the next
generation would one day steward the land.
One of the goals of the project was to provide
jobs to the neighboring population. This
is a work in progress and will be for some
time. In attracting high-performing companies
that use the latest technology in their
production, there is somewhat of a mismatch
between skills in the community and what
the companies require for their higher-paying
jobs. As a result, MVP along with employment
development groups have used job
training programs and internships to start to
bridge the gap. School tours are designed to
reach out to both younger and older children
to expose them to the career possibilities of
modern manufacturing and let them know
what skills they would need.
Finally, the Menomonee Valley Industrial
Center and Three Bridges Park development
had an advantage that many other brownfields
do not. Not only was it in a central
and very visible location, but also a series of
nearby developments-the new Major League
Baseball stadium, expansion of the popular
Potawatomi Casino Hotel, and the new HarleyDavidson
Museum-further highlighted its
rundown condition. It became imperative from
a wide swath of interests to see the property
successfully developed despite the challenges.
UL
KATIE ANDERSON is a ULI case study author and owner of
Pacifica Creative.
FALL 2023
URBAN LAND
119
One of the
goals of the
project was
to provide
jobs to the
neighboring
population.
This is a work
in progress
and will be
for some
time.
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2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land

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