From remediation to
Redevelopment
Blighted area of former industry transformed into successful student housing complex
By Jennifer Schmidt
M
ore than 600 students
call Carroll University’s
Pioneer, Frontier, and
Prairie halls home during a typical
academic year, with an estimated
860 more bunking in the suite-style
residence halls in the summer for
sports camps and other activities.
The first floors of the complexes
contain an array of retail outlets,
including a public YMCA in Frontier
Hall, further accommodating the
students as well as community
members. This area of the Waukesha,
Wisconsin, campus is bustling with
activity year-round, though this wasn’t
always the case.
The land the university’s newest
dormitories now sit on once was
6│TRENDS
home to various industries, and since
the latest factory closed, had become
an empty, run-down eyesore.
“The longer buildings are empty and
the less attention they’re given, the
more opportunity there is for bad
things to happen there,” said Ronald
Lostetter, Carroll University’s vice
president of finance. “We’re not an
island, and when we’re next to things
like that it has an impact on us.”
Properties have history
Adjacent to the Canadian National
railroad, this 5-acre corridor along
North Grand and West College
avenues in downtown Waukesha has
a long history of industrial use dating
back to the 1800s. It was first used for
a water bottling plant and then served
as a dairy and rubber factory. Other
businesses came and went through
the years, including a gas station, car
dealership, automotive repair facility,
dry cleaner, strip mall, teen center,
and printing company – all of which
ultimately closed.
With the structures vacant, soil and
groundwater contamination set in,
and unwelcomed activities such as
vandalism began to take place.
A local developer decided to do
something about it.
“We felt like it would be a good site
for some sort of multi-family, mixeduse development, and we started
talking to the university about the
possibility of student housing on that