The "middle" is getting expensive

A new proposal helps demonstrate how expensive rent is becoming in Wausau

A new proposal for apartments downtown aims toward the “missing middle” — somewhere between so-called affordable housing and luxury apartments.

The proposal for 11 Scott Street came last week to a joint session of the city’s Economic Development and Finance committees.

Surprisingly, no one from those committees thought to ask the obvious - what does missing middle mean, exactly, in terms of actual rent price? What were the proposed apartments going to rent for?

Fortunately, The Wausonian did. According to sources connected with the project, the new apartments there would go for $1,100 for a one-bedroom, $1,390 for a two-bedroom and $1,590 for a three-bedroom.

That roughly matches the rent range I got from the city’s Community Development Director Randy Fifrick. Fifrick gave me a general definition of the missing middle:

Traditionally, missing middle is referred to in terms of housing types that are in-between traditional single‑family homes, and large multi‑unit apartment complexes. This encompassed duplexes, triplexes, four‑plexes, small apartment buildings and townhomes.

And this:

When I think about missing middle in this context it is rents that fall in between 60% and 80% of average median income (AMI). Its people who may not be able to afford luxury new builds but are above the low‑income thresholds.

According to a table Fifrick shared with me from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that would include a range of rents around $1,112 to $1,384 for a one bedroom. (That roughly matches the rents I calculated on my own based on available data.) Upward range for a three-bedroom in the table he provided is $1780.

So the 11 Scott Street proposal seems like it fits that range. But what is the actual proposal?

The proposal

The proposal, from 11 Scott Street LLC (owned by Rolly Lokre) would take 11 Scott Street, an office building, and turn the top two floors into apartments.

To make the numbers work, they say, it’ll take $950,000 of city money. It wasn’t specified in the meeting, but this would come from funding through the TIF District, Fifrick confirmed to The Wausonian.

The breakdown would be primarily one-bedroom apartments: 40 one-bedroom apartments, 10 two-bedroom apartments and only two three-bedroom apartments.

Right now, the building is vacant. It only had two tenants for a number of years, Rolly Lokre told the committees Tuesday. They have some commercial tenants in the works, but Lokre said there is always the possibility of converting more floors into apartments if there is more demand for housing than office space.

It’s not the first signs Wausau has seen that office space demand is on the wane. Original plans for the old mall site had office space designated - leaders after COVID said that need no longer exists and that any plans for office space are unlikely to garner any interest. While a second Foundry building is likely, nothing yet has surfaced around office space.

The committee discussed the proposal in closed session last week, but made no decisions on it.

But how does the missing middle compared to homeownership?