GREEN BAY, Wis. — Work ceremonially got underway Tuesday on a new neighborhood in Green Bay that focuses on offering a variety of affordable housing types to residents.
Green Bay chief of staff Amaad Rivera-Wagner said community was a key part of the planning.
“We are going to show mixed-income housing, an urban farm, missing middle opportunities, pathways to home ownership,” he said. “You’ll be able to bike, ride and pick an apple to bring home all in one single neighborhood that was an empty for nearly 70 to 100 years.”
Plans call for a minimum of 130 housing units ranging from single-family homes to multiple-family dwellings. It also features a park and an urban farm.
“This project represents the largest community led housing development in Green Bay history. Also, the fastest,” he said.
It’s been in the works at the city level for two and half years and is being built on 26 acres of land donated by meat processor JBS in 2020.
Green Bay Common Council Alder Bill Morgan represents District 3 where the project is located.
“This is something that’s going to be so important to all the citizens of Green Bay. It’s going to be kind of like a jump start,” he said. “The one thing we all know is we need more housing. We need affordable housing.”
JBS has been a partner in the planning process.
“The increase in affordable housing in our region is something that will benefit our team members, their families and many of our neighbors as well,” said Brad Bothun, the director of human resources at the JBS location in Green Bay. “Our other amenities in the neighborhood will make this area an even more desirable place to be.”
Five million dollars of the project are coming from the state’s Neighborhood Investment Fund which was created from federal American Rescue Plan money.
“The idea was to make big investment in communities that would really have generational change and positivity brought to the community,” said Sec. Kathy Blumenfeld of the Wisconsin Department of Administration.
Blumenfield spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Blumenfeld said the state has allocated $234 million dollars from the fund to projects across Wisconsin.
Rivera-Wagner, who has been heading up work on the project, said it’s the idea of Mayor Eric Genrich. But, he said, it took many people and organizations to make to make it happen.
“I’m just so proud of this project,’ Rivera-Wagner said. “It couldn’t be any more Green Bay.”