PW-S board OKs $1 sale of school for condos

The Port Washington-Saukville School Board on Monday agreed to sell Saukville Elementary School and its 10 acres to a Grafton company that plans not to raze the old school but turn it into a condo building that would house 16 affordably priced units with indoor parking.

The purchase price? One dollar.

The board voted 8-1 to accept the proposal from Goldfinger Properties while praising the concept of repurposing the school to provide affordable homes that add to the tax base and potentially attract young families with children to the district.

And even at just a $1, school officials called it a good deal for the district and taxpayers.

The Goldfinger proposal is the only one the district received for purchasing the school building and property at 333 N. Mill St. even after extending the deadline for bids.

The alternative to selling the property in its current state after the new Saukville Elementary School on Orchard Lane opens in September 2027 is for the district to raze the school and sell the lot, which presents challenges for developers because it is in a floodplain and includes wetlands. The district has $650,000 of referendum funds budgeted for demolition of the school, parts of which date to the 1950s, but officials warned the cost could reach $1 million. That would be money saved under the Goldfinger proposal.

“This would result in a significant cost savings for the district, even with selling it for $1,” Supt. Michael McMahon said, noting that $1 property sales are not unheard of and citing the recent decision by the Village of Thiensville to sell land to a residential developer for $1.

“This provides housing that is affordable and attainable and provides young families with opportunities to move into our district and add to our enrollment,” he said in recommending the board accept the proposal.

Yvonne Klotz cast the lone vote against   the plan, asking the board to instead table it until its meeting next month.

“I’m still processing this,” she said. “I love the idea of taking something old and making it new, but for $1? I mean, this is a beautiful piece of property.”

The sale is contingent on final negotiations, due diligence performed by Goldfinger and approval by the Village of Saukville, which has not yet seen the condo plans.

Goldfinger Properties is a limited liability corporation owned by Grafton residents Joe and Karen Locher, who in 2024 purchased the 35,000-square-foot Rostad Aluminum casting foundry in Grafton and is converting it to commercial condos.

Mr. Locher told the board that he and his wife plan to apply the same concept of adaptive reuse they are using to repurpose the foundry to Saukville Elementary School.

“We can use this basic idea to put a product on the market that is sorely needed in a neighborhood that doesn’t want to be disrupted and destroyed and in a way that the School Board can get out from under the cost of demolishing the school,” he said. “And the community will benefit from a bump in the tax base.

“We love reusing old buildings. We hate to see them torn down. We think they are superior in almost every way to new stuff.”

Goldfinger plans to create 16 condos of varying sizes and indoor parking for 34 vehicles in the school building.

“We love mid-century modern,” Locher said. “They would be sleek and modern feeling.”

Ideally, the Goldfinger proposal states, the condos would range in price from $175,000 to $495,000, with 11 of the units priced at less than $325,000.

Goldfinger has committed to investing more than $1 million in the property and said the project will add a minimum of $4 million to the tax base.

The proposal comes against the backdrop of soaring house prices in Ozaukee County. 

With the price of new construction at a minimum of $240 a square foot, building and finishing a modest 2,000-square-foot house costs about $650,000, according to the Goldfinger proposal. At the time the company submitted its proposal in January, the median price of the 398 homes listed for sale in Ozaukee County was $603,000.

“Everyone knows housing is too expensive, and there’s really no simple way to build attainable, cheaper houses,” Locher said. 

One of the keys to Goldfinger’s approach to developing affordable housing is using an existing structure.

Even using a “rock bottom” per-foot estimate, it would cost at least $4.5 million to build a structure the size of the 45,000-square-foot Saukville Elementary School building, Locher said.

“That’s $4.5 million to $5 million that is slated to be demolished, and it just struck us, ‘Wait a minute, before that gets torn down and turned into an empty field, let’s see if there’s a way to at least use what’s standing and short-circuit that evil formula that makes houses unaffordable,’” he said. “Maybe we can turn this into something new.”

Locher, however, admitted that repurposing old buildings is risky business.

“Adaptive reuse is a tricky form of development and one that most developers shy away from because it’s unpredictable, it takes a lot of creativity, you run into surprises with old buildings and the margins are pretty thin,” he said.

But Goldfinger, which Locher said he jokingly refers to as a “mom and pop developer,” is particularly well-suited to reusing buildings because it has low overhead and experience repurposing its Grafton foundry building, he said.

Also key to the proposal is a purchase price of $1 because Goldfinger will not have to finance the purchase of the property.

“By starting for $1, we won’t be piling up finance charges right off the top,” Locher said. “Those finance charges get put onto the cost of the finished unit.”

And by the time the company has to take out a construction loan, it could have presold a significant number of units, reducing the amount of money it needs to borrow, he said.

The result, Locher said, could be a development “that creates almost a new formula for the starter house” and attracts a diverse cross section of people.

“You could have a really good combination of young families, single moms who have to find a place to live after a divorce and elderly people who are downsizing. You would have a really cool, diverse community abutting a park and being walkable to town,” he said, referring to the fact the school property borders Grady Park.

Board member Kierstin Cira praised the proposal but questioned whether the condos will truly be affordable.

Referring to her adult son, she said, “I look at what a starter home would cost him and I cry myself to sleep at night over the plight of young people. Is this really going to be affordable?”

Noting the first phase of the project would not be completed until 2030, Locher said it’s difficult to predict what would be affordable by then, but added, “We believe that by using the formula of starting with an existing structure, it (the condo costs) will be less than anything else competitively priced.”

School Board President Sara McCutcheon said that in addition to saving the district the cost of demolishing the school, the Goldfinger proposal is attractive because of its adaptive reuse concept.

“As a resident of Saukville, I applaud your creativity,” she said. “I love your preservation mindset and that this isn’t going to all end up in a landfill.”

Board member Stephanie Trigsted said the development is a good fit for the village.

“I’m also a Saukville resident and a huge fan of this plan,” she said. “I think it would bring some excitement to Saukville.

“And I appreciate your commitment to making the old new again.”