JAN 14, 2015 – Ashland, WI – Impact Seven, Inc. will be hosting a grand opening reception for the Wilmarth Mansion Historic Event Spaces on Jan. 28. The event is open to the public and will include music, free appetizers and refreshments from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and formal remarks at 5 p.m. Speakers include Ashland Mayor Deb Lewis and Impact Seven CEO Brett Gerber.

Built in the mid 1880’s by one of Ashland’s most storied businessmen, this grand residence remains a beacon of Ashland’s 19th century economic boom. Over its 130-year history, the Mansion has been home to the Ashland General Hospital, Trinity Lutheran Hospital and the Ashland Historical Society. Impact Seven acquired the property in 1997 and began the historic rehabilitation.

Impact Seven is excited to breathe new life into this Ashland Landmark, now officially recognized as one of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. In 2016, the Wilmarth Mansion will again open its doors to the City of Ashland as an historic event venue on the first level, fully restored to its original grandeur. The balance of the building has been repurposed as professional offices. For rental information, please see wilmarthmansion.com.

Join Impact Seven on Jan. 28 for an evening commemorating the historic past and celebrating the exciting future for the iconic Wilmarth Mansion.

Impact Seven is a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that was established in 1970 in rural northwestern Wisconsin. It builds capacity in underserved communities throughout the state and beyond, and provides innovative, socially-motivated investments and services. Impact Seven’s commercial and residential real estate projects revitalize distressed communities through cross-sector partnerships and local involvement.

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FEB 22, 2016 – RICE LAKE, WI – A February 17 site visit confirms that the extensive renovations and new construction at the future site of the Franklin School Apartments is nearing completion.

In late July of 2015, the project officially broke ground, with Impact Seven at the helm of development, with the assistance of Sikes-Abernathie Architecture. The general contractor, Dave Cecil Builders, Inc. had just begun setting the footings for the new townhomes at this time.

“Developments this complex are sometimes difficult to keep on schedule, with so many moving parts,” says Kristine Giornalista, Impact Seven’s Vice President of Real Estate Development. “We are very pleased with how the project is coming together.”

The 12 apartments, located within the historic Franklin School, feature high ceilings, large windows and loft-style finishes. The newly constructed townhomes provide eight 3-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom homes with spacious, family-friendly layouts and finishes.

All units are designated affordable – offering much needed, quality housing options for individuals and families who are earning less than 60 percent of the county median income.

The apartments and townhomes will be available for lease no later than May 1. The February 17 walk-through included a tour of many completed apartment and townhome units, but because the property is still an active construction site, those completed units will remain vacant until the bulk of the project is finished. Some additional work will continue into the summer, including landscaping, new playground installation, and paving efforts.

“The Franklin School Apartments offered Impact Seven a unique opportunity to support the Rice Lake community,” said Brett Gerber, Impact Seven CEO. “Preserving this landmark in this way is a perfect representation of Impact Seven’s mission to positively influence communities across Wisconsin.”

Impact Seven is a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that was established in 1970 in rural northwestern Wisconsin. It builds capacity in underserved communities throughout the state and beyond, and provides innovative, socially-motivated investments and services. Impact Seven’s commercial and residential real estate projects revitalize distressed communities through cross-sector partnerships and local involvement.

Townhomes

Apartments

Click Here For Leasing Information

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JUNE 7, 2016 – RICE LAKE, WI – Impact Seven invites the Rice Lake public to a grand opening ceremony for the Franklin School Apartments. The event will take place Monday, June 27 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and will include formal remarks and unit tours. Speakers will include representatives from Impact Seven, the City of Rice Lake, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), National Equity Fund and the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Once a vacant school campus, Franklin School Apartments is a new rental community providing 20 affordable apartments and townhomes for families on Rice Lake’s main commercial corridor. With Impact Seven at the helm of development, construction was complete in April 2016 and is now 90% occupied.  Sikes-Abernathie Architects and general contractor, Dave Cecil Builders, Inc. lead the design and construction teams.

“Developments this complex are sometimes difficult to keep on schedule, and we are very pleased the team delivered the project on time and budget,” says Kristine Giornalista, Impact Seven’s Vice President of Real Estate Development. “More importantly, we are excited that 20 more units of quality, affordable rental homes are available in the Rice Lake community.”

The Rice Lake School Board originally constructed the building in 1936 as a six-room primary school. After more than eight decades of service, the Rice Lake School Board determined the building could no longer support modern educational needs and vacated the building. In 2013, Impact Seven proposed an adaptive reuse to safeguard the landmark and respond to the area’s housing demand. Construction began in summer 2015 to convert the school building into 12 loft-style apartments and add 8 new townhomes.

Both renovated and newly constructed buildings follow Wisconsin Green-Built Homes criteria for sustainable construction. Sustainable practices and features include enhanced air sealing, low VOC products and Energy-Star rated windows. All units feature Energy-Star rated products including appliances, light fixtures and bath fans with timers, 95% efficient furnaces and high efficiency central air conditioners (SEER 14). The historic apartments provide either one or two bedrooms with an open design with high, exposed ceilings and design elements such as art niches and built-in shelving. The townhomes are designed to accommodate larger families with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, ground level exterior entrances and a private garage. The development provides numerous common amenities such a multi-purpose community room in the former gymnasium, on-site laundry, school-grade playground equipment and covered parking. All units are set aside for a mix of households, including those earning at or below 30%, 50% or 60% of the County Median Income (CMI). Rents are structured to be affordable to families at those incomes levels.

The project was made possible by significant public investment, including Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, federal historic tax credits, state historic tax credits jointly administered by the Wisconsin Historical Society and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, HOME funds administered by the Wisconsin Department of Administration, Affordable Housing Program (AHP) funds from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, and a NeighborWorks America capital grant. Bremer Bank provided both construction and permanent financing.

“We’re honored to share in the success of this development with the Rice Lake community, our development partners, and the many special guests that will join us for the grand opening celebration,” says Brett Gerber, Impact Seven CEO. “The event will recognize a new and exciting chapter in the history of the Franklin School.”

The grand opening will take place inside the Franklin School Apartments’ community room, formerly the gymnasium. Formal remarks begin at 10:30 a.m., and tours of the property are offered until 12:00 p.m.

Impact Seven is a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that was established in 1970 in rural northwestern Wisconsin. It builds capacity in underserved communities throughout the state and beyond, and provides innovative, socially-motivated investments and services. Impact Seven’s commercial and residential real estate projects revitalize distressed communities through cross-sector partnerships and local involvement.

The post Grand Opening of the Franklin School Apartments appeared first on Impact Seven.

The post Impact Seven Receives $10 Million from the CDFI Fund appeared first on Impact Seven.

The Garden Terrace will be enriched with services provided through referral partnerships with Couleecap, the Tomah VA Medical Center’s HUD VASH program, and the Wisconsin Department of Veteran Affairs’ Veteran Outreach and Recovery Program. Homeless households enrolled in comprehensive case management programs provided by these partners will have access to wrap-around services designed to support tenants in retaining housing and achieving personal goals.

The community facility on the St. James parcel will house the Kane Community Hub, a resource that will be open to Garden Terrace residents, the Kane Street Garden and the surrounding neighborhood. This space will feature a multi-purpose meeting space, a catering-style kitchen for activities such as nutritional classes and community meals, and on-site property management offices. The Kane Community Hub also will be a space for Impact Seven’s referral and supportive services partners to have one-on-one client meetings, group sessions and other programming.

If the project receives Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in spring 2017, construction is slated to begin in spring 2018.

The post I-7 chosen for La Crosse Kane Street Project appeared first on Impact Seven.

Beyond opening the doors for the Manitowoc community to see the transformation, one of the most exciting elements of the day was the unveiling of two murals by Kris Austin and a collaborative effort between Erin LaBonte and Justin Franklin Baldwin – the winners of a statewide competition. Both murals have thoughtful and significant ties to the Manitowoc community, and the artists were available to share their process and vision with the crowd during the event.

In May 2016, Artist lofts received the Neighborhood Development Award from Progress Lakeshore, which recognizes innovate real estate development projects that create jobs and increase the tax base.  In addition, this $9 million historic rehabilitation has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places by the Wisconsin Historical Society and is now the highest rated energy efficient multi-family green development in the history of the Wisconsin Green Built Home program. The project has designated affordable units, so special care has been taken to ensure that the latest in energy-efficient equipment, materials and methods were used, as well as durable and low-maintenance building materials. In addition, 25% of the project’s apartment units are targeted to United States veterans in need of supportive services.  Manitowoc County Veterans Services Office, working in conjunction with Lakeshore CAP, will provide veteran support services in space allocated in the development.

Loft-style unit amenities include refurbished wood floors and ceilings, central heating and air conditioning with exposed ductwork, two full baths in each unit, custom cabinetry, Energy-Star appliances, new energy-efficient windows and in-unit storage. Building amenities include on-site management, indoor parking, on-site laundry, community room, exercise and fitness studio, and gallery spaces. In addition to veterans, the Artist Lofts will target the artist community, allowing individuals to create, display, and sell their work in the same building in which they live. In September, The Artist Lofts Gallery will be leased by Vagabond Creative Studio and will be the new home of Vagabond Visual Concepts, Jason Prigge Art School and the Vagabond Community Gallery. Six annual art shows are planned in the Vagabond Creative Studio, along with community based art learning programs covering everything from digital to classical art disciplines. The space will also host periodic performances and events, and will be open to the public. The creative space will be managed by award-winning visual artist Jason Prigge and his co-creative and wife, Tina.

The project was developed by Impact Seven, Inc. and Wisconsin Redevelopment, LLC, with the support of the Veterans Service Office of Manitowoc, Lakeshore CAP, Inc., MacRostie Historical Advisors, the Chamber of Manitowoc County and Progress Lakeshore. Loans for the project are provided by Bank Mutual, Impact Seven, the City of Manitowoc and the US Environmental Protection Agency.  Grants, Equity and Tax Credits are coming from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, Wisconsin Department of Administration Division of Energy, Housing and Community Resources, Commerce Bank, National Equity Fund, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. The project was designed by Quorum Architects and built by Catalyst Construction.

The post Photos: Artist Lofts Grand Opening appeared first on Impact Seven.

In 2000, we built our current headquarters in Almena, Wisconsin. Lovingly dubbed the “Log Castle” by our employees, the space has served us well over the last decade and a half. But as our real estate and lending portfolio grew to historically high levels, our staff grew along with them and soon the Almena building was beyond capacity.

The Almena office will remain the home of Impact Seven’s Property Management team. 

When looking at the possibility of opening another office in northwest Wisconsin, there seemed no better place than the City of Rice Lake. The largest city in Barron County, Rice Lake serves as a center for commerce, manufacturing, health and educational services…and soon, community development.

Late in 2015, a building on one of the main throughways became available and the decision was made to split our offices and move half of our staff into this new space, leaving the Property Management team to spread out into the full footprint of the Almena office. Just 20 miles apart, these two offices will provide the community with more and better ways to access information about Impact Seven’s services and what we can offer the region.

Beyond housing Impact Seven staff, the lower-level offices will be available to the Rice Lake community for lease, helping to make this split fiscally viable for the company as a whole. Already, two spaces have been leased.

This week, signage is going up around the building. The interior of the space will stay much the same for the near term until the team is able to settle into the building and decide on how best to renovate it to suit our needs.

Staff will begin working at the Rice Lake office as early as Monday, July 25^th.

We are looking forward to being a bigger part of, and a stronger voice for community development in northwest Wisconsin and beyond. This space offers us the opportunity to reintroduce ourselves to the greater public in a way that will better share the scope of services we offer as a catalyst for community development.

The post Rice Lake, here we come! appeared first on Impact Seven.

Grand opening celebration to include site tours, remarks and mural unveilings

July 14, 2016 – Manitowoc, Wis. – The Office of the Governor, the City of Manitowoc, Impact Seven, Inc. and Wisconsin Redevelopment, LLC will be hosting the grand opening for the Artist Lofts on July 22 to mark the completion of the historic renovation of the former Mirro Plant #3. The event will include a ceremonial ribbon cutting, the unveiling of two winning murals and a formal ceremony. Speakers will include Governor Scott Walker, Manitowoc Mayor Justin Nickels, representatives from the development team and more.

The event is open to the public and will take place on site at 2402 W. Franklin in Manitowoc, Wis. Networking begins at 1:00 PM, followed by formal remarks and a ribbon cutting ceremony at 1:45 PM. Site tours begin at 2:30. Beyond opening the doors for the Manitowoc community to see the transformation, one of the most exciting elements of the day will be the unveiling of two murals by Kris Austin and a collaborative effort between Erin LaBonte and Justin Franklin Baldwin – the winners of a statewide competition. Both murals have thoughtful and significant ties to the Manitowoc community, and the artists will be available to share their process and vision with the crowd during the event.

In May, Artist lofts received the Neighborhood Development Award from Progress Lakeshore, which recognizes innovate real estate development projects that create jobs and increase the tax base.  In addition, this $9 million historic rehabilitation has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places by the Wisconsin Historical Society and is now the highest rated energy efficient multi-family green development in the history of the Wisconsin Green Built Home program. The project has designated affordable units, so special care has been taken to ensure that the latest in energy-efficient equipment, materials and methods were used, as well as durable and low-maintenance building materials. In addition, 25% of the project’s apartment units are targeted to United States veterans in need of supportive services.  Manitowoc County Veterans Services Office, working in conjunction with Lakeshore CAP, will provide veteran support services in space allocated in the development.

Loft-style unit amenities include refurbished wood floors and ceilings, central heating and air conditioning with exposed ductwork, two full baths in each unit, custom cabinetry, Energy-Star appliances, new energy-efficient windows and in-unit storage. Building amenities include on-site management, indoor parking, on-site laundry, community room, exercise and fitness studio, and gallery spaces. In addition to veterans, the Artist Lofts will target the artist community, allowing individuals to create, display, and sell their work in the same building in which they live. In September, The Artist Lofts Gallery will be leased by Vagabond Creative Studio and will be the new home of Vagabond Visual Concepts, Jason Prigge Art School and the Vagabond Community Gallery. Six annual art shows are planned in the Vagabond Creative Studio, along with community based art learning programs covering everything from digital to classical art disciplines. The space will also host periodic performances and events, and will be open to the public. The creative space will be managed by award-winning visual artist Jason Prigge and his co-creative and wife, Tina.

The project was developed by Impact Seven, Inc. and Wisconsin Redevelopment, LLC, with the support of the Veterans Service Office of Manitowoc, Lakeshore CAP, Inc., MacRostie Historical Advisors, the Chamber of Manitowoc County and Progress Lakeshore. Loans for the project are provided by Bank Mutual, Impact Seven, the City of Manitowoc and the US Environmental Protection Agency.  Grants, Equity and Tax Credits are coming from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, Wisconsin Department of Administration Division of Energy, Housing and Community Resources, Commerce Bank, National Equity Fund, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. The project was designed by Quorum Architects and built by Catalyst Construction.

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Impact Seven is a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that was established in 1970 in rural northwestern Wisconsin. It builds capacity in underserved communities throughout the state and beyond, and provides innovative, socially-motivated investments and services. Impact Seven’s commercial and residential real estate projects revitalize distressed communities through cross-sector partnerships and local involvement.

Wisconsin Redevelopment, LLC, is a Wisconsin based real estate development and consulting company, focusing on historic renovations and workforce housing.  Many of Wisconsin Redevelopment’s projects are award-winning including Historic Manitowoc Place, a 2004 $5.2 million historic rehabilitation of a vacant and neglected 8-story building also located in Downtown Manitowoc. Historic Manitowoc Place, has had a major impact in the rebirth of Manitowoc’s Downtown.

Those interested in becoming tenants should contact Impact Seven at 844-548-3147.

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