Building a New, Sustainable Community

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Photo by Tyler Nelson

Que El-Amin

The Community Within the Corridor is a multimillion-dollar development project that will transform an abandoned, inner-city industrial site into a community with affordable apartments and office space, retail shops, a daycare center and amenities such as a skate park and a putting green. I caught up with one of the Milwaukee activists behind the project, Que El-Amin.

We have met a few times over the past couple of years to discuss your visionary project when it was in the conceptual stage. Now it is becoming a reality. Please describe your project.

The Community Within the Corridor is a $60 million renovation of the former Briggs & Stratton complex on 32nd and Center in Milwaukee. Over 380,000 square feet is being developed by Scott Crawford, Inc. and Roers Companies and will create 197 affordable apartment units; over 25,000 square feet of recreational space and 35,000-plus square feet of commercial retail space. The development team was very intentional in providing the elements to build and sustain a successful family onsite. Urbane Communities and Sharp Creatives were brought on board to procure owners and operators for a laundromat, small grocer, sports facility, daycare center and afterschool programming. Lastly, TCWTC will host the Creative Corridor, with the goal to retain, cultivate and connect local artists and creatives to resources which will build capacity and access to local and national markets.

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Photo by Tyler Nelson

You have a good reputation. So, for people who have never heard of you or your project, tell us a little something about you—where you grew up, how you learned the development business, how you came to focus on this particular project.

I am Que El-Amin, a Milwaukee native who graduated from Dominican High School. I then went on to earn an undergraduate degree from UW-Madison in art and later attended Chicago State University for my master’s degree in geography. Directly after graduating with my undergraduate degree, a good friend of mine, who was a loan officer at the time, introduced me to real estate. I began flipping smaller properties during the height of the real estate market until it crashed. It took me attending Chicago State for my master’s degree that I began to see the forest from the trees. MacArthur Award-winner Emmanuel Pratt was my professor and he opened up my world to sustainable development, community engagement and an unknown word, aquaponics. His leadership then and what he is currently doing with The Commons in Chicago was inspirational. When I got back to Milwaukee after graduating, I took that inspiration and purchased orchards throughout the city, which led to my current real estate endeavors.

This particular project manifested itself much like other projects, through multiple failures. This was the third redevelopment site that Jennifer Green of Commercial Realty Advisors showed me as she knew redeveloping historical buildings was an interest of mine. We were able to agree on site control in 2016 with the owners and 4-years later, finally able to purchase it.

You have completed the purchase of the property and have the architectural designs completed. What are your next steps.

The next steps for the project are many, including a Workforce Development meeting on August 4, hosting community tours in September and continuous conversations with the community for feedback. Construction starts in November 2020.

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Photo by Tyler Nelson

Development projects, especially ones as visionary as your project, are one challenge after another, even after it is completed and fully rented. What are your current challenges at this stage of development?

Our current challenges include getting community-based subcontractors signed up and prepared to bid at the suggested capacity to take on a job of this size. We want to make sure that this project is developed by members of the community, meaning Milwaukeeans. Also, for residents that directly live around the Center Street area, we are helping to eliminate some of the barriers that people have in that process.

Other challenges include programming. While we have already raised capital to redevelop the structure itself, there is an ongoing effort of greater magnitude to raise capital for enriching the residents that will live onsite, as we also help the surrounding community to thrive in life through the hiring of the most talented people.

We are still looking for healthy food options to occupy space within the corridor, including a small grocer, food delivery systems and urban agriculture options.

Once this project is completed, what effect do you think it will have on the community?

Once completed, I think this project will be an example of what can be done in the community in multiple realms. First, I think it will be a shining example of community-based development, meaning members of the community, politicians and financiers working together to better the community. It will help to show real estate developers the importance of including ancillary services into affordable housing developments.

Second, we will be able to provide an entrepreneurial based STEAM educational program that has been proved to be effective for over 3,500 students nationally. It has embedded the skillsets needed to ensure success in the digital age, with the effect of creating employers and employees that create value, locally, nationally and internationally.

Thirdly, I think this will be the catalyst to the revitalization of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor, which is the heartbeat of Milwaukee, into a thriving neighborhood. This project has the capacity to become what the Sabine Lofts is to the Houston Bayou and the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts to the Atlanta Beltline. These developments bring hundreds of thousands of people together through art and recreational activities.

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