Former UWM-Waukesha Campus Slated For 212-Unit Housing Development

WAUKESHA — A Milwaukee-based developer has filed preliminary plans to convert the former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Waukesha campus into a 212-unit residential community, ending four years of speculation about what would happen to the 94-acre site since its closure in 2022.

The proposal, submitted to the city's Community Development Department last week, calls for a mix of apartment buildings and converted academic halls, with the developer citing 'significant regional housing need' in materials provided to the city. The plan does not include unit pricing, square footage breakdowns, or a construction timeline, all of which the developer's filing lists as 'to be determined during design development.'

City planner Doreen Kalscheur said preliminary zoning review is expected to begin within the next three weeks, starting with a traffic study focused on Northview Road, which currently sees most of its vehicle volume from the campus's twice-daily parking lot sweeper and little else.

A Realtor's Caution

One local realtor, speaking on condition of anonymity because she said she didn't want to be quoted criticizing a project before it had unit prices, said the development 'may be priced above what most Waukesha-area buyers currently can afford,' adding that she based this assessment on 'every development like this for the last eleven years.'

The realtor estimated that a one-bedroom unit in the converted administration building, which still has a mounted plaque commemorating a 1987 library expansion, would likely rent for 'whatever the market will bear, which at this point is apparently anything.'

"We're not ruling out keeping the lecture hall seating in some of the units as a design feature. It tested well with the one focus group we ran."

— Randy Oehlke, project architect

What Remains On Campus

The 94-acre site has sat largely untouched since the two-year degree program closed, though the gymnasium briefly reopened in 2024 for county blood drives before being shut again after a boiler failure. The campus's lone surviving tenant, a continuing-education ceramics studio that operates two nights a week out of the former chemistry building, has not yet been contacted about relocation, according to studio instructor Phyllis Rademacher, 58, who said she found out about the redevelopment 'the same way everyone else did, which is a text from my sister.'

Rademacher said the studio's 14 students have expressed mixed feelings, with most concerned less about displacement and more about who will inherit the kiln, which she described as 'temperamental but ours.'

Housing Context

The proposal arrives as Wisconsin home affordability sits at a record low, a trend the city's own housing report flagged last week. Councilman Gary Puchalski said he welcomed any addition to the housing stock but wanted assurances the development wouldn't simply replicate existing price pressures under a university-adjacent name.

"Calling it 'The Campus at Waukesha' doesn't make it affordable," Puchalski said at Tuesday's informal briefing, before acknowledging he had not seen the proposed name and was 'just guessing based on how these things usually go.'

The developer, listed in filings as Fieldhouse Realty Partners, has not responded to questions about pricing, timeline, or the fate of the ceramics kiln. A company spokesperson, reached by phone, said only that 'renderings are coming soon' and declined to specify how soon.

Next Steps

Kalscheur said the city plans to hold a public input session before the Plan Commission takes up zoning changes, tentatively scheduled for early November. She said she expects the session to draw 'a healthy amount of interest,' citing the Seasons Apartment development hearing last week that ran more than two hours over density concerns.

No date has been set for groundbreaking, assuming the project clears zoning. The campus's vacant parking lots, which total roughly 900 spaces, will in the meantime continue serving their current primary function as a practice location for a local driving school's three-point-turn lessons.