A Milwaukee-based real estate developer plans to bring an apartment development to the former site of St. Bernard Congregation and Wauwatosa Catholic School in the Wauwatosa village. Here’s what to know.
Three Leaf Partners named as developer to purchase St. Bernard parish
Three Leaf Partners LLC submitted its plans for a three-story multi-family development at 7474 Harwood Ave. to the City of Wauwatosa weeks after parishioners learned St. Bernard would close to merge with its sister parish Christ King.
Rev. Phillip Bogacki, pastor of both parishes, told parishioners in a letter that parish leaders had chosen a developer to whom they would sell the St. Bernard property, but didn’t name Three Leaf Partners. Proceeds of the sale will serve as an infusion of cash to carry the newly merged parish forward, he said.
Three Leaf Partners, co-founded by Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton, has developed hotels, multi-family apartment buildings and other projects around the Milwaukee area, Minnesota and Indiana. The firm developed the Honey Creek Apartments in Wauwatosa and is working on multi-family apartments and townhomes in Hartland.
St. Bernard property to be replaced by 163-unit apartment building
Three Leaf Partners’ plans would bring a 163-unit apartment building to the coveted property in the Wauwatosa village, plans by Milwaukee-based Korb + Associates Architects show.
One-bedroom units from 650 to 850 square feet would make up most of the building, while more spacious one-bedroom units from 850 to 950 square feet and two-bedroom units that are 1,150 to 1,250 square feet will also be available.
Below the three levels of apartment units, a basement garage will provide 187 parking spots for residents. Twenty-three parking spots north of the building are planned for visitors.
A courtyard will bring residents an outdoor space within the apartment complex’s walls, complete with grills and a fire pit. The building will include a storage area for bikes, a fitness room and club room, among other amenities.
How much will Three Leaf Partners’ apartment development on Harwood Avenue cost?
The project costs $46 million and Three Leaf Partners does not plan to ask for tax incremental financing, or TIF, according to the BizTimes, which first reported on the development.
Representatives of Three Leaf Partners did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.
The firm has sought out TIF in other projects, including $13 million in city financing help for an apartment project in West Allis.
Parts of St. Bernard’s history may be preserved in the new developments, plans show
Plans show that developers and architects may repurpose the bricks, stained glass and other aspects of the existing building that housed St. Bernard parish, which became Wauwatosa’s first Catholic church in 1911.
Construction on the current parish complex began in 1962. The parish property underwent extensive renovations starting in 2000, which brought new parish and school office centers, a gymnasium and an elevator, according to the parish website.
Rev. Bogacki said in his letter to parishoners that approval from the city for the developers’ plans may take six to nine months and that the parish will remain in their building during that time.
“If plans are approved, we can determine when to set moments to celebrate the good work of our past and pledge ourselves to a renewed future,” he wrote.
Will the new apartment replacing the St. Bernard property in Tosa’s village go before the Common Council?
The development meets the current zoning code and therefore does not need to go to the Common Council for approval, according to Eva Ennamorato, Wauwatosa’s communications manager.
“That’s unique when it comes to developments,” Ennamorato told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The development firm plans to present its plans at the Wauwatosa Design Review Board meeting Thursday, April 18 at 7 p.m. in the Common Council Chambers at Wauwatosa City Hall.
The in-person meeting will not be recorded, and residents can share their thoughts on the development during public comment, Ennamorato said. The development may need to go before the Board of Public Works or other boards to receive certain permits before construction can begin, according to Ennamorato.
Contact the reporter at bfogarty@gannett.com
McLOUD — A popular camp for people with special needs was displaced from its longtime home at St. Gregory’s University, then shuttered through long stretches of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, the beloved monk and Catholic priest who started the program never lost hope, and now his Camp Benedictine is experiencing a rebirth of sorts in its new, spacious home.
“We prayed to God, and I’m just thrilled,” the Rev. Paul Zahler said.
Despite the litany of setbacks, Zahler, 89, is watching the camp come to life again on a former church campground in McLoud. His determination, along with the work of a small but resilient staff, numerous volunteers and generous donors, helped get the program moved to a place where it can thrive.
Oklahoma businessman and philanthropist Gene Rainbolt is one of the people who jumped in to help. He said he learned about Zahler’s programs for people with special needs when he lived in Shawnee for more than two decades, beginning in 1966.
“Father Paul had an equine program and a swimming program on St. Gregory’s campus so I knew about this all these years,” said Rainbolt, who currently lives in Oklahoma City. “They do remarkable work with children that really need help.”
Amit Gumman, a Camp Benedictine board member, said it has been wonderful to welcome back longtime campers while introducing the program to newcomers.
“You hear a lot of laughter here and there’s a lot of joy,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of struggles and challenges, but we made it. It’s kind of divine intervention.”
‘It’s just been a blessing’
Zahler, a Minnesota native, moved to Shawnee in 1950 to attend (now defunct) St. Gregory’s High School. Shawnee’s St. Gregory’s Abbey and St. Gregory’s University, were both founded by Benedictine monks, and Zahler knew he had arrived at a place where he could play high school and collegiate sports while also pursuing his priestly vocation. He became a Benedictine monk at St. Gregory’s Abbey in 1956, and he remains a part of the monastic community. He was ordained as a priest in 1962.
Zahler founded the nonprofit National Institute on Developmental Delays (NIDD) at St. Gregory’s in the 1960s, and Camp Benedictine was started in 1972.
He said he was swimming in the university pool when he realized that it would be a good place to work with people with developmental delays. He started working with children at the university’s child development center, which opened in 1976, and with the inception of Camp Benedictine, he expanded his holistic approach to helping people from ages 8 to 80 with special needs. Zahler said the camp became a year-round camp offered one weekend a month in the 1990s. The nonprofit Home Integration eventually became an umbrella organization for Zahler’s programming.
When St. Gregory’s closed in 2017, Zahler and the camp’s loyal staff and volunteers packed up and moved items used for the child development program and Camp Benedictine.
Virginia Reeves serves as the program’s longtime administrative director and camp co-director with her daughter, Marcy Reeves. She said they found office space in Shawnee, and were able to relocate from St. Gregory’s to a Christian children’s camp in Pink, which served as a much-needed temporary location for some programming. But everyone involved with Camp Benedictine knew that its specific needs and special clientele meant a more permanent home had to be found.
They found what they were looking for in the 40-acre former church campground in McLoud. Reeves and other Camp Benedictine leaders said the location is large enough to host retreats for campers with special needs, and there is plenty of room for Zahler’s vision of a swimming pool, basketball court and volleyball court. She said the camp’s leaders also hope to eventually use a horse barn at the back of the property to restart the popular equine program, all when more funds are raised.
Reeves said a building that once housed a camp concession stand was transformed into a nurse’s station for the camp nurse. Two newly constructed buildings include a Camp Benedictine retreat center for campers and a multipurpose building for meals and other indoor activities.
Camp Benedictine is listed in the Oklahoma Rehabilitation Services’ Disability Resource Guide, a comprehensive listing of more than 2,500 disability and social services programs, said Jody Harlan, a department spokeswoman. Reeves said parents and caregivers of people with special needs have been calling on a regular basis to ask when the year-round camp weekends would be starting again, and it’s been exciting to tell them that the program has returned.
“It’s just been a blessing,” Reeves said at the recent spring camp. “We have 32 (campers) here today, and we’ve been trying to get the word out now that we’ve started again.”
Jose Muprappallil and Mohan Chandran are also longtime leaders and supporters of Home Integration and Camp Benedictine. Muprappallil said the nonprofit was grateful to Garcia Construction and the city of McLoud for their graciousness toward the camp organization. Chandran said it’s important to note that the nonprofit launched by Zahler provides recreation for campers but ultimately helps teach them skills to help enhance their lives and, for some, gain employment.
‘Father Paul’s kids’
Activities during the recent camp weekend included St. Patrick’s Day arts and crafts, a take-home planter box project, outdoor games and whimsical “leprechaun hunt.” The group also made cards for a camper who missed the weekend event due to illness.
Zahler spoke to campers and volunteers as he walked around the multipurpose building before lunch was served. He beamed with pride as several campers hugged him and talked to him about their crafts and camp activities. Zahler said about 40,000 people have participated in Camp Benedictine over the years.
“They’re my family,” he said.
Longtime Camp Benedictine volunteer Kathi Yeager spread cheer, talking with several campers whom she called out by name. She said many of them had been part of the program for many years, spanning from childhood to adulthood.
One of them was Russell M. who started coming to the camp weekend retreats when he was about 8 years old. Yeager said he is currently in his 40s.
“They light up like Santa Claus is here when he comes into the room,” she said of Zahler.
She said she started volunteering for the camp while she was a child psychology major at St. Gregory’s in the late 1980s and she took one of Zahler’s classes.
Yeager said the camp is great because campers love it and parent and caregivers may go and have a time of respite and they don’t worry because their loved ones are in good hands.
“It’s kind of mind-boggling that this little camp that started in a corner of the gym at St. Greg’s is still going on,” she said.
“It’s all because of Father Paul, the power of his vision, prayer and the passion of the people who are here today.”
To learn more
The next Camp Benedictine weekend is April 19-21. For information about Camp Benedictine and the National Institute on Developmental Delays, go to https://nidd.us/programs/camp.
At 8:03 Sunday night, the carillon chimes at First Baptist Church in Rolling Fork will play the hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” to mark the moment exactly one year ago when an EF-4 wedge tornado began to rip a nearly mile-wide scar through this small town in the Mississippi Delta and obliterated virtually everything along historic U.S. 61.
It will be the first chime played by the new carillon after the old one was destroyed by the March 24, 2023 tornado that ripped across Mississippi. A new carillon and steeple were delivered and scheduled to be installed this week.
It marks one more step in the rebuilding of Rolling Fork, which commemorated the anniversary with several events leading up until Sunday.
The storm destroyed nearly 300 homes, many businesses and claimed 15 lives in the town of then 1,800 people. Wind speeds were reported just shy of 200 mph.
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Today, unofficial estimates are the population has shrunk to around 1,200 people as so many people were left with no place to live and no way to make a living. Those who are left are building back in what officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency say will likely be a three-year process. Even then, no one really knows if Rolling Fork in Sharkey County will ever get back to 1,800 people in the city limits.
“The citizens, the people are rebuilding lots of homes and businesses in Rolling Fork,” former Rolling Fork Mayor and former president of the Bank of Anguilla Fred Miller, who lives in Rolling Fork. He is also now the chairman of the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas. “The non-profits are very much involved in making sure that the town comes back.”
One of those non-profits is Rolling Fork Rising, of which Miller is a member of the board directors. It has acquired 18 home sites that have been torn down to the slab and another 18 acres of land in the hopes of building as many as 100 new homes with money and materials that are donated and with the help of outside volunteers, who continue to make their mark on the community.
“We have six new foundations poured and funding for another 10 new houses this year. We know we are that far along,” Miller said. “We just got word that a former resident of Rolling Fork, who now lives in Atlanta, is going to make a sizeable contribution. So, while it may not be as fast as everyone would like, we are moving forward. That is positive.”
Despite FEMA recently approving nearly $3 million to reimburse the city of Rolling Fork for the replacement of signs and the repair of roads, Miller believes more could be done by the City of Rolling Fork.
“I am disappointed in city government,” Miller said. “We have spent a lot of money on things, in my mind, that are wasteful. I understand. I probably would have been overwhelmed at the scope of the disaster and I would have had a hard time, but I think the first thing I would have done was to find someone smarter than me who could help move things along. We needed as a city to hire people that had a resume going back to something like (Hurricane) Katrina that has handled this type of situation before and make sure we weren’t falling behind in the process. I don’t think that kind of thing has happened.”
Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker did not respond to requests from the Clarion Ledger for comments on this story.
Rolling Fork rising
Rolling Fork Rising is a nonprofit with a vision to help rebuild homes in Rolling Fork, especially for renters. Approximately 68% of the residents of Rolling Fork prior to the tornado were renters. There are several government and other programs created to help homeowners rebuild, but very limited opportunities to help renters.
Rolling Fork Rising is identifying former renters for their homes. The buyers are getting the homes at a reduced price, plus they are getting them at 0% interest.
“It really is a chance of a lifetime,” Miller said. “We just really hope there are enough people here in town to take advantage of this by the time we get finished.”
Emily Carter, a volunteer with Rolling Fork Rising, helps coordinate volunteers who come into town to help. While First Baptist Church is not associated with Rolling Fork Rising, it does donate space on their second floor for people to stay, in bunk-bed style, while they are in town. The church can house up to 50 people at a time.
“This all started because of the renters. There just wasn’t anywhere for them to go,” Carter said. “There aren’t any government programs for that. FEMA doesn’t help renters.”
Most of the landlords were not going to build back homes that were completely destroyed, but they did repair many houses that were just damaged.
“So, taking care of these renters is really the key for the future of the town,” Carter said. “Without the people, there is no town. There’s no schools or churches or the businesses or anything else. So, our hope is to get people in houses just as quickly as we can with the resources we have.”
Chuck’s Dairy Bar
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In one of the more amazing statistics that have come from the storm, along U.S. 61, the true business corridor for the town, every business that was either destroyed or damaged, except for one, is back in business.
The only one that hasn’t opened is Chuck’s Dairy Bar, but owner Tracy Harden said the local landmark will be up and running by the end of April. She has been running the restaurant from food truck, basically since the dust settled after the storm.
The new building is up and stoves and griddles and vent hoods are being installed as well as furniture after a months-long delay in getting a utility hookup completed.
But Harden is grateful just for the opportunity to be able to open again.
“The first night we open, we will honor those people we love who aren’t with us any more,” Harden said as she wiped tears away. “We will be thankful for our lives, thankful for how far we have come. Just the fact that we didn’t even start putting our building up since September, we have come a long way.”
Harden and her staff hid from the storm last year in the restaurant cooler while two patrons hid in the bathrooms.
With that knowledge, Master-Bilt, the refrigerator company, donated $35,000 worth of a cooler system for the new Chuck’s with double the capacity of the old system. The old cooler had been in place since 1977 when the last Chuck’s building was built.
“When they saw that we had a bigger slab for the restaurant, they gave us more room for the cooler,” Harden said. “It’s installed, it’s cooling, and we can start putting groceries in it pretty soon.”
Rebuilding Chuck’s Dairy Bar offers a beacon of hope for the community as well, since Chuck’s has been around longer than most people can remember and many people hope it will still be around for years to come.
It opened in 1964 with then-owner Chuck Henderson at the helm of what would one day become a legendary eatery.
No more storms for Brother Bob
Rev. Bob Gilliland was sitting in the parsonage of Deer Creek Baptist Church that Friday night a year ago watching a re-run of “Gunsmoke” when his son called.
“He said to turn on the news. ‘There’s a storm coming,'” Gilliland said. “So (his wife) Betty and I went down the hall and sat in the bathroom. Well, she sat and I paced in and out into the hallway like you can imagine and old preacher would.”
It was the second tornado he and his wife had lived through in just a few months. In fact, the only reason Gilliland was even in harm’s way at the parsonage last year was because his home just a few miles down the road in Anguilla was a total loss from the EF-2 tornado, and he was forced to live in Rolling Fork.
This year, Gilliland, now 81, is sporting a cane after a couple of falls, but he still is in the pulpit every Sunday morning. Despite, the drop off in the population of Rolling Fork, attendance is only down a few people each week.
“Of course, if we had double the amount of people every Sunday, I would still be wanting more,” Gilliland said. “We have an older group. Many are still scared of (COVID-19), but we go and visit and minister to everyone. We are working hard.”
Gilliland is back in Anguilla living in a new home on the footprint of his original home, next door to his son. The church still hasn’t starting rebuilding the parsonage, but he said it will be a priority in the next year.
“We are happy to be alive. I guess I am meant to be here,” he said, adding that the Lord has “certainly had every chance to take me. So, as long as I am on this Earth, I am going to keep moving forward. I guess there’s a lot of us like that here in Rolling Fork and Anguilla.”
If you have a story idea, Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or at 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.
St. Bernard Parish, a Catholic church on the edge of Wauwatosa’s downtown village area, will close and the property will be sold to a developer, its pastor said in a letter to parishioners on Sunday.
Church operations will merge with its sister parish, Christ King, said the Rev. Phillip Bogacki, pastor of both St. Bernard and Christ King. The merged parish will move entirely to the Christ King campus, and use its name, Bogacki said.
The closure of St. Bernard, at 1500 N. Wauwatosa Ave., follows the shuttering at the end of the last school year of the adjoining Wauwatosa Catholic School because of a financial deficit and low student enrollment.
Beyond that, the move reflects what is happening to scores of houses of worship nationwide facing existential threats such as declining membership, aging congregations and an unwinnable financial situation.
Bogacki called attention in his letter to changes in demographics and churchgoing habits in Wauwatosa, a city of about 48,000 people with five Catholic parishes and six more nearby. As is the story elsewhere in the country, Catholic institutions were at their peak in the 1950s and 60s, and a downturn began in the 1970s. People began to have fewer children, and the high concentration of Catholic churches and schools in the area no longer fits the needs of residents.
“Our area parishes — as a group — have been operating far below their intended capacity for several decades,” he said. “The moment to choose to change our trajectory is now.”
Other local Catholic churches have closed, merged
Parish leaders have chosen a developer to whom they will sell the St. Bernard property, and proceeds of the sale will serve as an infusion of cash to carry the newly merged parish forward, Bogacki said.
The St. Bernard campus will continue to be used while the new developer, who was not named in Bogacki’s letter, seeks approval for its plans from the city. That could take six to nine months, he said.
“I am confident about our future. I challenge us to become larger and more robust than our two parishes within the next few years,” Bogacki said. “God placed us in this moment to create something new and exciting.”
St. Bernard joins other local Catholic parishes that have merged with neighboring churches. Last year St. Florian Parish in West Milwaukee shut down and merged with Holy Assumption Parish in West Milwaukee. In 2021, the Catholic parish in Riverwest, Our Lady of Divine Providence, decommissioned its Our Lady of Czestochowa location after it sat unused for years.
When St. Bernard Parish held its first Mass in 1911, it became the first Catholic church in Wauwatosa. Construction on the current parish complex began in 1962.
Wauwatosa Catholic School, the elementary school on the grounds, was operated jointly by St. Bernard and St. Pius X parishes beginning in 2011.
Time appears almost to have passed by the small 19th century chapel building and adjoining cemetery at 5902 Kingston Pike amid all the newer Bearden development.
But now the church might be passing time – and the busy street – by in return. Possible plans are in the works to move it to where it can be preserved even better.
A sign recently placed on the small white church building says, “This 1885 chapel for sale. Must relocate to your property/venue.” Listed is the phone number for the Cappiello real estate and property development firm, the building’s owner.
Efforts to reach Cappiello officials for more information were unsuccessful, but a 2018 Shopper News story quoted Tony Cappiello as saying he had recently bought the property. He said at the time that he had been approached in the fall of 2017 about purchasing the building by the Royal Chaplain Corps’ David Trempe, who was changing his ministry’s focus after being there for nearly 10 years.
Cappiello said he had done some remodeling work there after purchasing it and had already held special events there, with plans for more. He said the long-term plan was to rent it out to a nonprofit group, with preservation of the old church building the goal.
“I appreciate old buildings,” he said at the time. “Whenever I can, I try to save them. In this case I should be able to do that.”
The education and Sunday school wing added to the west side of the church building in later years was also leased out to at least one business for a period after his purchase.
Cappiello in 2018 also said he owned the Pelican’s SnoBalls building on the east side, a building that had formerly been a house, so it made sense to own both parcels of property next to each other on the busy street.
Whether any other plans are in the works for the site are not known. The church building dates to the 1880s and for several decades was the site of Bearden Christian Church. Not long before the Royal Chaplain Corps began using the facility, it had been the Korean Christian Church.
Although event weddings using such buildings as historic chapels have become popular in recent years, the Bearden building appeared limited in available parking on its immediate lot.
While the chapel building has been very noticeable to the numerous passengers in automobiles passing it daily, the small cemetery hidden behind it has been mostly inconspicuous. Likely the burial site of former church members, the small cemetery in the southwest corner of the lot has a couple dozen tombstones of people who died in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Among the last names on some of the markers are Abbey, Ventis, and Giezentanner.
Combined, both the cemetery and chapel seem to quietly tell a detailed story of Bearden history.
The church building and cemetery are among just a small number of local landmarks from the 19th century remaining in that part of Knoxville. Two others are the Knollwood mansion on Bearden Hill and the Lakeshore Park administration building that had formerly been part of the mental health institute there.
Those two have new uses, as does the former Marble City United Methodist Church of similar size and shape a couple of miles east on Sutherland Avenue. It was in recent years converted into an architect’s office and a coffee shop.
But the plans for the historic chapel on busy and modern Kingston Pike are still being sketched in the minds of potential users.