A controversial proposed property at the corner of Capitol Dr. and Stowell Ave. is at the final stage of village approvals: review by the Design and Review Board (DRC). Three Leaf Partners, the developer of the property, is a real-estate company that recently purchased three separate lots on the corner of Capitol and Stowell. They combined the lots and submitted plans to construct a 39 unit apartment building.

At a January 27 DRC meeting, the project developer announced that the previously-planned four units of affordable housing would no longer be a part of the development. Three Leaf Partners also made several aesthetic changes to the building based on community feedback. Three Leaf Partners is an organization that aims to balance social responsibility and financial gain for their investors.

“We want to make sure our developments are having a good impact on the communities we are developing and working in and obviously we want to be able to deliver our returns to our investors,” said Joe Stanton, Vice President at Three Leaf Partners. “What makes our company unique is that we have a lot of professional athletes involved and also a lot of business men and women who are investing alongside each other and through the vehicle of real estate. So we are trying to make sure that [we] can help to build generational wealth for that group of investors, that’s obviously very important to us.”

Immediately after being proposed, the project drew criticism from neighboring property owners, including members of the East Capitol Neighbor’s Association (ECNA), a group that objected to both the massing of the project and the developer’s successful bid in obtaining a special parking exception from the Plan Commission.

“The project is wrong. The developer has been misleading the village since the beginning, first claiming that it was going to be affordable housing and then dropping the affordable housing saying it was too expensive,” said Daniel Walsh, agent of the ECNA and neighbor of the proposed development. “If the developer does not make enough money, that’s too bad for the developer.”

In accordance with Wisconsin State Statute, developers cannot be required to build affordable housing, so Three Leaf Partners has no legal responsibility to build affordable units despite their initial plans. However, currently the developer plans to have four reduced-rate units.

“The biggest thing to note is that it’s not required [for] us to do affordable units at this point since we didn’t get any state funding or village funding or anything so ultimately we are just doing it, at this point, out of the goodness of our heart and voluntarily,” Stanton said.

Village discussions are underway to possibly utilize money set aside for affordable housing developments so that Three Leaf Partners can afford to reduce the rent of their units further. 

The ECNA originally opposed the special parking exception the development received because of traffic concerns. The organization doubts the validity of traffic and parking studies cited by the developer. The ECNA is also concerned about the density and facade of the site, as well as the rights of neighboring property owners with regards to values of their homes.

“I’m not saying no to density, yes that’s fine, but it needs to be relatively similar to what is here because then when that gets built that looks ugly because it’s so different than everything else that is built. That’s why we have been arguing from the beginning that the massing of the building is wrong,” Walsh said. “You can alter the facade but if you don’t change the massing it’s not going to look like it belongs here, and that’s what we are saying.”

The developer stressed that it was a priority to respond to resident feedback.

“One of the major things we have heard feedback from the neighbors is they didn’t want something that was too large or too dense for the site,” Stanton said. “Tying into the social impact we want to have, we also don’t want to be the developer that has a development that doesn’t fit the neighborhood.”

This development has opened up more village wide conversations on affordable housing. The village is currently  developing a future plan to address affordable housing and is in the education phase to hear from village residents. Several Village Trustee candidates have adopted affordable housing as a top priority.

“So with respect to what the village is currently doing we are still in the education phase of figuring out how we are going to approach affordable housing,” said Bart Griepentrog, Shorewood’s Planning & Development director. “Attracting renters to provide input on these things has been an issue for generations, and I don’t think that is unique to Shorewood.”

While Walsh is a local neighbor, he is also a commercial real estate developer, which gives him a unique perspective on the development process. 

“I represent developers who are doing exactly what [the developer] is doing, I represent property owners who are trying to sell their properties to men like this. Can’t kid a kidder,” Walsh said.

Although Walsh maintains how out of place this development is, Stanton looks forward to future opportunities in the village.

“[It’s unfortunate that] some foreign developer, someone who doesn’t live here and is never going to live here, can build something that is wildly out of place,” Walsh said. 

“We’ve really enjoyed working here in Shorewood and hearing what the neighbors have to say. Shorewood is a great village and we definitely want to develop again in the future,” Stanton said.