The Social Development Commission’s Main Office, at 1730 W. North Ave., remains closed after the agency suspended operations in late April. SDC is selling the property to pay off some of its debt. (Photo by Meredith Melland)
By Meredith Melland
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Visit milwaukeenns.org.
The Social Development Commission is selling its properties on North Avenue for about $3 million to help pay for expenses needed to move the now-closed agency forward, NNS has learned.
The SDC’s main office at 1730 W. North Ave. and two parking lots are listed for $2.59 million, and its nearby warehouse and parking lot at 1810 W. North Ave. are listed for $639,000 by Ogden & Company, Inc.
William Sulton, SDC’s attorney, confirmed on Tuesday that the buildings are for sale.
He said the board made the decision on Sept. 18 to sell the properties to limit ongoing expenditures, plan for future operations, pay some of SDC’s debts and avoid future debt.
“Obviously, the board has to scale down its operations,” he said. “And the North Avenue properties, it was unlikely that those properties would be fully utilized.”
Both locations are owned by SD Properties, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a separate board. It also owns SDC’s office on Teutonia Avenue, Sulton said.
SD Properties was established in 2002 to acquire properties for SDC, according to a 2022 tax document.
In the months since the social service agency closed its doors to the public in late April, SDC’s Board of Commissioners has tried to unravel the agency’s financial situation and restructure it for the future.
Former commissioner and SDC volunteer selling properties
Kimberly Njoroge is listed as the Ogden agent for the properties.
Njoroge served as an elected member for District 3 on the SDC’s Board of Commissioners. Sulton said her term expired in June.
She has continued to attend board meetings and be included on the board roll call, sometimes taking roll at meetings. Sulton said she has continued to volunteer with SDC.
“I think it’s fair to say that she received access that no other non-board member received,” Sulton said.
SD Properties entered into a standard broker contract with Ogden, which includes a commission, according to Sulton.
The SD Properties board now consists of commissioners Terese Caro and Vincent Bobot.
Sulton said SD Properties did not go through a bidding process.
When considering how to utilize its resources in SDC’s crisis, the board looked at the options of selling the North Avenue locations.
“Then the question was, who would do it and who would do it at a rate that was more favorable than the market, and Njoroge was the person,” Sulton said.
Njoroge did not respond to a request for comment.
Why sell?
With funds from the sales, SD Properties could pay off debt on the two defaulted mortgages of the properties as well as owed maintenance costs, Sulton said.
“I think that SD Properties would be able to pay off all of its debt and I think SD Properties would be in a position to be able to deliver a donation to the commission that the commission could use to whatever advantage the commission believed appropriate,” Sulton said.
As recently as January, SDC had planned to expand its properties, Sulton said.
The main office is 32,400 square feet, according to the property listing.
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.