Milwaukee Common Council President Announces Partnership to Reduce Blight

The City of Milwaukee is turning to its residents for help cleaning up the city. A new partnership is forming that could help fix up abandoned and rundown properties. 

The old citation plant building is an example the city gave. The business next door bought the property after having issues with squatters.

In this case the city was able to lift the tax liens on the property and the businesses next door could purchase it at a lower rate, fix it up, and in-turn it improved their company's own property value. 

It's a partnership the Common Council President, Ashanti Hamilton, wants to expand. He says they picked four 'promise zones' across the city where businesses and homeowners can be part of the partnership. We spoke to the business owner who took advantage of the partnership, and says it's been a win win.

Frank Crivello, Executive Vice President of Phoenix Investors says, "The city did the job of cleaning the property so to speak of all these parties. We are doing the job of making the blight go away by paying for the remediation and demolition. Which frankly as a private party we can do more efficiently."

The city says they chose the promise zones based on homelessness rates and crime.