Bear Development is backing away from its plan to develop a large income-restricted apartment complex in a public parking lot in the heart of Janesville’s downtown.
Big Radio obtained a city email in an open records request telling the city council that Kenosha-based Bear says it now longer considering apartments off North Parker Drive, next to the historic Carriage Works property.
The email is dated Wednesday and is signed by City Manager Kevin Lahner. It tells city officials Bear is walking away from the North Parker site that the city wanted to hand Bear so they could build 78 units of subsidized, income-restricted apartments there.
The plan commission spurned the proposal this week, sending a unanimous recommendation to the city council not to declare the parking lot “surplus” as part of a set of moves to groom the lot for apartments.
Lahner writes in the email that Bear has backed off the North Parker site because of the commission’s recommendation.
Lahner writes that the city and Bear could bring a new proposal at a different site, but Bear is now under the gun to secure a site before it runs out of time to apply for a bundle of federal, state and local tax credits he says are needed to launch an apartment project here.
He says it will be “difficult” to find a new site that allows the same incentive package for Bear’s apartment concept, which Lahner has said is aimed at housing that the average paycheck earner in Janesville can afford.
Bear Development’s move this week to scrap the North Parker proposal leaves $1.5 million in time-sensitive Rock County affordable housing funds on the table — at least for now.
Rock County had earmarked $1.5 million in federal funds for Bear’s initial 2024 proposal, apartments off Rockport Road. The site proved unworkable, so Bear and the city shifted focus to North Parker Drive.
Rock County Administrator John Light says the county funding can be shifted from one project site to another, but that is a change that would require county board approval. He says a plan must come together soon, because the funds must be spent by December 2026 or be returned to the federal government.
Two other housing projects in Beloit have garnered other portions of the county’s $4 million pot of affordable housing funds. Light says in the few months he has been at the helm of Rock County, he has heard of no snags in the Beloit housing proposals.
