Walker Development Delayed Over Financing Issue

RACINE, WI — For about 23 years, the 9.5-acre site of the former Walker Manufacturing plant remained a vacant, or gravel-covered eyesore - or both - on the shore of Lake Michigan.

It's going to be that way for a little while longer, after city officials had to change their tack along with the project's developer over how the project would receive financial backing to get underway.

Reporter Michael Burke of the Journal Times wrote Monday, saying that the start date of the @North Beach project would be pushed back several months after the project's initial lending sources reportedly cooled on funding. Now city officials hope to buttress the project by pursuing U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development loan guarantee.

Big Announcement Last Year

In Oct. 2018, Racine Mayor Cory Mason and Royal Capital Group's President Kevin Newell reached a principal agreement for Royal Capital to acquire the lakefront property.

"There is more interest now in the City of Racine from developers than there has been in several decades," said Mayor Cory Mason at the time. "I am excited that we have found a reputable developer who shares the same values as the City when it comes to being innovative in design, while producing an environmentally-sustainable product, and who's focused on benefiting the lives of our residents."

Royal Capital has been known to build multifamily and multifamily mixed-use real estate developments, Since 2012 Royal Capital has performed as the primary Developer and Owner on over $175 million in total investments, including serving as Developer and Owner for mixed-use housing and commercial real estate for the Milwaukee Bucks $1 Billion entertainment district in downtown Milwaukee.

The last time Racine thought they had a buyer for the Walker site, city officials thought they had a done deal for a development called Pointe Blue. It never happened after financing dried up and the project was indefinitely shelved.