Post 7 of 7 in our “Behind the Build” series Over the past six posts, we’ve walked through much of what goes into getting a major development off the ground: what entitlement means, how zoning works, why housing supply matters, where $60 million comes from, and how tools like TIF can help make redevelopment possible.…
Post 6 of 7 in "Behind the Build." Few local government tools generate “more heat and less light” than tax increment financing — “TIF”. Depending on who's talking, it's either a giveaway to developers or the only reason anything gets built. The truth is more interesting than either, and every La Crosse taxpayer deserves to…
Post 5 of 7 in "Behind the Build" Here's a question almost nobody outside the industry can answer: when a $60 million project gets built, where does the $60 million actually come from? It's not sitting in the developer's bank account. No lender writes one $60 million check. Instead, big projects are funded through what…
Post 4 of 7 in "Behind the Build" Ask any employer, any young family shopping for a first home, or anyone who's searched for an apartment lately: housing in the La Crosse area is tight. That's not a talking point — it shows up in vacancy rates, in rents, in how fast listings move, and…
Behind the Build A SUPPLEMENT TO “WAIT, THAT’S AFFORDABLE?” Post 3 When people hear that Copper Rocks will bring 247 new homes to the old big-box site, one question comes up more than any other: why apartments and townhomes? Why not just build houses? It’s a fair question, and it deserves a real answer. So…
Post 3 of 7, Behind the Build 'Affordable' Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means "Affordable housing" gets used constantly and defined almost never. It shows up at city council meetings, in news stories about rent, in your friend's Instagram story about their lease renewal — and it means something slightly different depending on who's…
Post 2 of 7 in Behind the Build In everyday speech, "entitled" is not a compliment. In real estate, it means something completely different — and understanding it helps explain why the path from a development idea to construction can take much longer than people might expect. A property is "entitled" when its owner has…
Behind the Build is a seven-part educational series from Three Sixty Real Estate Solutions that explains, in plain English, how redevelopment projects move from concept to construction. If you've driven down State Road lately, you've seen it: the old Kmart site, a big empty box on a big empty parking lot. For nearly ten years…