Shorewood Board: $1.5 Million Lot — Offered for $333,000 or Free?

The Shorewood Village Board is considering gifting or selling the village parking lot at 4450 N Oakland Ave to Spoerl Commercial LLC, without getting an appraisal first.

That’s right. A village trustee even said in a post to this group:

“. . . An appraisal for a sale for a hypothetical free market use wouldn’t be helpful. . .”

I strongly disagree. Every significant public property transaction should require a valuation — otherwise, how can taxpayers know the true economic return?

Here’s what I found:

Spoerl recently paid $1,365,800 for a similar-sized lot in Whitefish Bay at 4800 Santa Monica Blvd (See image below of the lot and construction site).

That works out to $77 per sq. ft.

Apply that to Shorewood’s lot size (15,000 sq. ft.), and you get $1.15 million to $1.5 million in value. The high end assumes a premium for a prime location in our entertainment district.

I calculate the total "cost" of Shorewood's contribution to this project (value of land + TIF funds) ranges from $1.6 million to $3.2 million.

Shouldn’t we demand a proper valuation before giving away prime real estate in our commercial district? Yes, I do appreciate that affordable housing projects require public participation. But what's the payback for our participation? In my next post I assess how renters would benefit. Hint: the payback is poor.