Work poised to start soon on new Green Bay Metro Fire HQ, housing site

Construction should begin this fall on the new Green Bay Metro Fire Department headquarters, 85 affordable apartments and more community facilities planned for a former South Broadway industrial site.

Two City of Green Bay committees on Sept. 8 recommended borrowing the money needed to build the new Metro Fire station and headquarters. Hours earlier, the Green Bay Redevelopment Authority approved providing additional financial incentives to support Milwaukee-based General Capital Group's Fire Station Flats affordable housing development. The actions will still need to be approved by the City Council.

The estimated $32 million public-private development plan will remediate and redevelop the former Badger Sheet Metal site at 420 S. Broadway into a Metro Fire headquarters and station house, affordable apartments, a community space, pedestrian greenway and stormwater management facility.

The approvals put General Capital on track to start construction in the next 30 days on Fire Station Flats to get foundations poured before the winter freezes the ground. The city, meanwhile, expects to get construction bids in by the end of 2026 and start work on the fire station several months later in spring 2027.

Both buildings are expected to be completed in 2028.

The city and General Capital originally hoped to bid out the fire station and apartment project together to reduce costs, but the parties split the projects in two because the fire station needs to go through the city's normal, public bidding process. Sig Strautmanis, a partner at General Capital, said the city has been a great partner as the two parties worked through "significant changes and modifications" to a complex project that involves meeting requirements to retain housing tax credits and properly monitor site contamination for decades to come.

"It's been incredibly great to work with the staff," Strautmanis said, later adding the two parties have been in total cooperation throughout the two years it has taken to reach this point.

The redevelopment plan for the Badger Sheet Metal site features two buildings, three different uses and four different improvements. Here's a look at the plan.

Metro Fire: The station house and administrative offices will be a three-story, 31,700-square-foot building along South Broadway with four apparatus bays with a fifth to be listed as an alternate when the city solicits bids. Fire engines and ambulances will leave the station house via access on South Broadway. The Metro Fire site also includes access to South Maple Avenue via a driveway.

Fire Station Flats: The 85 apartments will be set aside for households that earn less than 80% of the area's median income as required by the state affordable housing tax credits. The building will be oriented along South Broadway and Arndt Street, on the north end of the site. Its parking lot will be accessed by a driveway at the corner of Arndt Street and Chestnut Avenue.

Community Serving Facility: It's an 8,000-square-foot space on the first floor of the apartment building that provides a community event and support space that primarily serves residents who earn less than 60% of the median income. While part of Fire Station Flats, the space will be its own condominium unit leased to the city for $1 per year.

Green Infrastructure Corridor: The Badger Sheet Metal site was originally a slough (pronounced "sloo") that drained into the Fox River via what's now Shipyard Park. It was filled in between 1907 and 1936 to create more land for industrial development. The south end of the site will become a green infrastructure corridor that features a pedestrian greenway and stormwater detention basin that runs from Maple to Broadway. The stormwater facility will filter and store stormwater in concert with pervious pavers and a drainage system installed during the first phase of Shipyard Park improvements.

The city's Ad Hoc Facilities Committee and Finance Committee on Sept. 8 approved the development plans for the new station house and committed to borrowing a total of up to $15 million of the fire station's projected $21 million budget. The remainder of the project would be funded with federal grants the city has secured.

The committees did so after a presentation highlighting the various ways city staff and consultants revamped the building's design, layout and spaces to reduce costs and square footage. Modifications included reducing the number of equipment bays, dorm rooms and the size of a patio. It reconfigured offices and equipment spaces, as well.

The city already in 2026 borrowed $7 million for the fire station and would likely borrow the other $8 million in 2027 as part of its capital improvement program.

The Redevelopment Authority endorsed an amended development agreement to provide a little more than $7 million in loans, grants and incentives to General Capital.

The modifications include a reduction of $1.6 million in federal Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) funding eligible for the project due to the U.S. Treasury Department's interpretation of eligible uses. The city originally budgeted $2 million of ERA funds for the project and General Capital was able to secure outside funding to offset the reduction.

The revised agreement calls for the city/RDA to provide:

Up to $1.5 million via an 80% reimbursement of the new property taxes the development generates from 2028 to 2042.

$417,450 in remaining ERA grant funds passed from Brown County to the city to General Capital.

$5.1 million loan for construction of the community service facility portion of the site, which will be city owned and operated, but within the Fire Station Flats building. The money, previously approved, will be held in escrow and drawn down as qualified construction expenses occur.

The agreement also includes a $3.17 million project grant, equivalent to General Capital's tax credit award, to be paid out only if the city doesn't construct the fire station by Dec. 31, 2028. The project grant was added because General Capital would lose the tax credits if the city, for whatever reason, did not build the fire station and community service facility.

The board previously in April 2026 approved two loans worth more than $1 million to help General Capital close a $1.4 million funding gap in the Fire Station Flats project budget.

Action on the new headquarters comes at a crucial time when Metro Fire remains without its two central city station houses.

Metro Fire for more than two years has been without a headquarters building since deteriorating conditions at Station No. 1, 501 S. Washington St., rendered it unusable. The June 24 storm flooded Station No. 3, 885 Shawano Ave., making it unusable until emergency repairs can be completed.

Since Station No. 3's closure, the department has shifted staffing around to maintain response times in the central city. But the new home for both fire equipment and the department's administrative offices will be centrally located to maintain 4- to 6-minute emergency response times on both the east and west sides of the downtown area.

Contact business reporter Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or [email protected]. Follow him on X at @JeffBollier.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Work poised to start soon on new Green Bay Metro Fire HQ, housing site