Franklin's Ballpark Commons senior apartments to include memory care housing

Apartments for older people at Franklin's future Ballpark Commons mixed-use project will include memory care housing, according to newly released plans.

The development's senior housing will feature a three-story building on 6 acres south of West Rawson Avenue, and west of West Old Loomis Road.

The building will have 139 apartments, including 36 memory care units, a city Department of Community Development report said. The remaining 103 apartments will be for both independent and assisted living.

The memory care units will be in a separate wing. They will be for people with mild to moderate memory loss.

The apartments will be developed by New Perspective Senior Living LLC, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., said Richard Lincoln, a project consultant.

Its Milwaukee-area developments include a Brown Deer building that opened in 2016.

The senior housing is in addition to 212 market-rate apartments that will be developed for the general population, said Mike Zimmerman, Ballpark Commons lead developer.

Those market-rate apartments, in four three-story buildings, also will be south of Rawson Avenue.

The Franklin Plan Commission is to review the senior housing site plan at its Thursday meeting. 

The commission also is reviewing site plans for the Luxe Golf Bays high-tech driving range, a three-level building with 57 heated open-air bays with an outdoor beer garden; two restaurants connected to Luxe; and the Ballpark Commons Sports Performance Center. Those restaurant operators haven't yet been named.

The sports performance center will feature a 76,000-square-foot training center for soccer and baseball. It  will include a therapy center operated by Midwest Orthopedic Specialty Hospital, Lincoln said.

Ballpark Commons also will have a three-story, 54,000-square-foot office and retail building.

That building's businesses will include offices for Marso Companies LLC and Zimmerman's Roc Ventures LLC. There also will be a Wheel & Sprocket bicycle shop.

All of those commercial uses, along with the development's signature baseball park, will be north of Rawson Avenue.

The baseball park will be for an American Association of Professional Baseball team that's not affiliated with Major League Baseball. It also will be the home field for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee team.

Ballpark Commons had its groundbreaking ceremony on June 7.

Parts of that first development phase, including the baseball stadium, will begin opening in spring 2019, with the apartments beginning to open in early summer, Lincoln said.

The Franklin Common Council in 2016 approved plans for spending up to $26.8 million to help finance Ballpark Commons.

A city study estimated Ballpark Commons would have property values totaling $101.2 million by 2021 if it is fully developed. Future development phases could include a hotel and other uses.

The new property taxes generated by Ballpark Commons would pay back the city's funds by 2034, the study said.

Ballpark Commons is next to The Rock, Zimmerman's outdoor sports facility at 7900 Crystal Ridge Road. 

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.