SHEBOYGAN, WI (WHBL) - The past few months have seen announcements made for new apartment buildings in Sheboygan.
The most recent plan was approved by the city’s Common Council Monday for a project on South Eighth Street between New Jersey and Virginia avenues for around 90 units.
Speaking to WHBL News, Mayor Mike Vandersteen says this land has been considered for apartments for some time. “We’ve been talking to SMET Construction for almost two years now about this project, and the project started off a little smaller, and SMET brought on a developer from Milwaukee and when they got involved the project increased in sized and in value.”
This action comes about two months after the city agreed to aid in another new building project where the former Boston Store stood in the downtown area. That building will include around 80 apartments.
Vandersteen says these are not the only apartment projects going on right now. “There’s been a company currently building, I believe, 80 units southwest of the Foxcroft complex, so that is currently going on. I understand that there’s units up in the town that are being built. In the city it was recently requested to rezone some industrial land on North 17th Street for another possible project, and we don’t know it that’s going to go through but it looks like when they take those steps it might happen in the future.”
Why this current surge of new apartments in the Sheboygan area? Vandersteen didn't answer that, but is confident the city can support them. He bases this on a study done on this matter several years ago. “The study supported that upwards of 350 apartments could be added and we could still support those."
If anything, the new apartments could also help with the current campaign to entice people to move to Sheboygan County and work at area businesses and manufacturers. "We talked to somebody recently in the “Someplace Better” campaign, and they said that they found that most of the apartment complexes aren’t really advertising much anymore because they didn’t have to. They don’t need a website or need to promote themselves because they’re pretty much filled up all the time. And now they’re going to be a little bit more competition in the marketplace and different offerings for people to consider.”
As for the two apartment plans for the downtown area, Vandersteen says ground should be broken in June, with completion expected by mid-2017.