Governor Doyle Announces $400,000 to Help Build School for At-Risk Children

For Immediate Release: May 7, 2007
Contact: Carla Vigue, Office of the Governor, 608-261-2162
Tony Hozeny, Department of Commerce, 608/267-9661

MILWAUKEE - Governor Jim Doyle today announced that Capitol Crossing, LLC, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, will receive a $400,000 Blight Elimination and Brownfield Redevelopment grant to rehabilitate a 76-year old blighted building into a school for at-risk children. Department of Commerce Executive Assistant Chandra Miller Feinen presented the award on behalf of the Governor at a groundbreaking held at Lad Lake, Inc.

"Cleaning up brownfields is about more than just renewing damaged or vacant land; it's about renewing the pride of a community, and restoring jobs and productivity," Governor Doyle said. "I am pleased to partner with Capitol Crossing and Lad Lake to renovate this old building into a school that will focus on helping kids in this community get a good education."

Capitol Crossing will rehabilitate a 76-year old blighted building into a school, and also plans to build a gymnasium for the school on an adjacent parcel. It will use the grant to remediate environmental contamination and for redevelopment expenses. The company will lease the rehabilitated building to Lad Lake, Milwaukee.

Lad Lake is an educational and counseling organization for at-risk children and has served Southern Wisconsin for over 100 years. Lad Lake will use the building for a new Education and Life Skills Development Center, helping Milwaukee youth who are at risk of school failure, lack the necessary skills to live independently, struggle with emotional or behavioral problems or who are in crisis. Lad Lake will create 17 jobs with this expansion. The total project cost is $4.3 million.

Commerce's Blight Elimination and Brownfield Redevelopment (BEBR) Program provides grant funds to municipalities, local development corporations, and the private sector to support assessment, remediation and return of contaminated lands to productive use. Brownfields are abandoned, idle, or underused industrial or commercial properties where redevelopment is hindered by real or perceived contamination. For more information about the Brownfields Program, contact Jason Scott, Commerce, at 608-261-7714.

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