Condos' bright lights create a buzz

RiverCrest Condominiums

Downtown housing option attracts suburbanites
By DAN BENSON
dbenson@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 15, 2006
After 20 years, Gary Buerstatte and his wife, Anna Pepelnjak, this spring traded 4 acres in rural Dousman for four stories in Milwaukee, going against the grain of the city's continuing population drain.


Gary Buerstatte and Anna Pepelnjak once saw the trees and fields of Dousman when they looked out from their home. Now, from their condo, they see downtown Milwaukee.

Condos and the city

"There's a vibrancy, a different rhythm and pace in the city. It's an interesting change of pace for us," said Buerstatte, 57, a senior vice president with ProHealth Care in Waukesha.

With their son, Nathan, out of college and living in Boston, Buerstatte and Pepelnjak - a lawyer with Weiss, Berzowski, Brady - sold their 3,000-square-foot home near Genesee Depot in March and bought an 1,800-square-foot, four-story condo at Humboldt and Commerce streets in Milwaukee to be near the downtown theater and arts scene that they have frequented for years, he said.

"Instead of being 35 to 40 minutes away, we're just minutes from whatever theater we may want to go to," Buerstatte said. "We've already been to the symphony twice this year. I can't remember the last time we were able to make the symphony twice" in a single season.

Some longtime residents are opting for city lights instead of starlit suburbia, providing a bright spot for city officials and a countertrend of indeterminate size to recent census estimates.

On June 21, the Census Bureau released figures estimating that the city of Milwaukee lost 4,257 residents, or 0.7% of its population, from 2004 to '05, the fourth-largest percentage decrease among U.S. cities with more than 500,000 residents.

Since 2000, the city has lost 2% of its population, the Census Bureau says, while the surrounding suburban counties have grown in population.

Milwaukee city officials, most notably Mayor Tom Barrett, dispute the estimates, noting that the Census Bureau has had to make corrections in the past. They also point to a continuing surge in downtown development that, according to recent industry estimates, includes about 30 recently completed or under construction condo projects in and around downtown, totaling about 1,700 units.

Developer Tim Dixon said the condo buyers include those who have transferred from out of town, young professionals and empty-nesters leaving the suburbs for the city.

"They want to embrace the culture that a large city offers," he said of former suburbanites. "A lot of these people also have second homes somewhere else. They like turning the key and it's done. There's no maintenance."

That's one of the things Kristine Schmidt likes about her condo in the 1900 block of N. Summit Ave., which she bought in 2001 after having lived in three different single-family homes in Brookfield since 1970.

"I travel a lot, and I don't have to worry about the mail or the newspaper or the yard," said Schmidt, 60, the City of Brookfield clerk.

Moving to downtown Milwaukee was an idea with which Schmidt had toyed for several years, especially as she found herself spending more and more time there, attending theaters and museums.

She said she finally made the decision to move when a pipe burst in the basement of her Brookfield home.

" 'That's it. I'm done,' " she remembered saying to herself.

With her daughters gone, she sold her 1,700-square-foot house and bought the 1,000-square-foot condominium with lake views where she lives now.

Schmidt said that she was concerned about higher taxes in Milwaukee but that, financially, it has turned out to be a wash - if not actually in her favor.

Going up
The payments for her condo were less than for her house, but she believes that the market value of the condo has now risen more quickly and is now equal to her former residence.

WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) news anchorman Mike Jacobs said he expects the situation to be about the same when he and his wife, Linda, move to Milwaukee's east side after 23 years in Mequon.

They are in the process of buying a condominium at Landmark on the Lake, 1660 N. Prospect Ave., about half the size of their 3,000-square-foot home, which is still on the market.

With the couple's two grown children, ages 25 and 26, out of the house: "Our house has a lot more space than the two of us need. And we found ourselves going downtown a lot to restaurants, entertainment and the festivals," Jacobs said.

"There will be additional taxes, but in terms of out-of-pocket, not much of a change," he said.

Jacobs said he also considers it a good investment, as more baby boomer suburbanites move to downtown Milwaukee.

"Our hope is we're catching the front end of that move, and so the value of the properties is going to be moving higher," he said.