Redevelopment plans for Lincoln Middle School building in La Crosse
LA CROSSE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – A former La Crosse middle school will soon serve a new purpose in the city following the sale of the building. First News AT Nine’s Dashal Mentzel explains what it will be used for in the future.
Lincoln Middle School was closed last year and has sat empty since September. The 100-year-old school was a casualty of declining enrollment in the city’s schools. School District of La Crosse Superintendent Aaron Engel explains, “We’ve had 30 years of declining enrollment and we just have fewer students than we used to. And so, as we evaluated our needs and our capacities, we identified that we could successfully educate our kids and to middle schools instead of three.”
Engel says the district went out to request proposals from buyers and engaged in a community engagement process last summer, “Affordable housing definitely came to the top of the list along with a number of other things. And so when we put out our RFP, it included those potential uses for the property as selection criteria as we move forward.”
Executive Director for the Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development Todd Mandel is from La Crosse and says the building is a great opportunity to help fix the city’s housing crisis, “When I saw that the Lincoln Middle School was coming up for a surplus property from the district, I immediately thought of the fact that it would likely make a great location for conversion project into affordable housing and reached out to our long time development partners at Commonwealth.”
Commonwealth Development Corporation of America and the Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development bought the property for $2.2 million and the sale is expected to close on June 30, 2025. Engel says, “We’ve got a year and a half to think about that and make sure that this agreement comes to fruition. But in the meantime, we just launched a long-range facility plan. And so, as we think about the sale of property, the receipt of those funds will be used to help make that vision come to reality.
In La Crosse, Dashal Mentzel, First News at Nine.
A representative of the Commonwealth Development Corporation of America says, “Commonwealth expresses our appreciation for the proactive initiative taken by the School District of La Crosse.”
Construction is anticipated to start in early 2026 and end that Fall.
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