Mexican Fiesta Office To Move After Festival Ends

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 21, 2009

Milwaukee –The Wisconsin Hispanic Scholarship Foundation, Inc. (WHSF), 1220 W. Windlake Ave., which manages and operates Mexican Fiesta from August 21-23 at the Summerfest grounds will move its operation to another location after the festival ends, according to Mexican Fiesta sources. WHSF plans to be out of the Windlake location by the end of September.
WHSF will move all of Mexican Fiesta equipment, supplies pertaining to the festival and office related items to their new location at 2997 S. 20th St. The acquired property has two acres of land for future expansion. The new facility will be able to accommodate larger office space, once the planned construction inside the building has been completed.
Throughout the construction period, WHSF and Mexican Fiesta personnel will be conducting business in a temporary portable office facility until construction is completed. Target date for completion of construction is in late December or early 2010.
The WHSF building on 1220 W. Windlake Ave. will be razed and the property will be part of Mercy Housing Lakefront “catalytic project” for the Near South neighborhood. The Johnston Center building located West of the WHSF building has been vacant for the last three years, and will be a new permanent supportive housing property that will be home to 91 people who are formerly homeless and have special needs.
The new Johnston Center rehabilitation 13 million property once completed is expected to attract more businesses and services to the prominent six-corner area. It will also meet the city’s critical need for permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals, according to Milwaukee city officials.
Mercy Housing Lakefront, a regional office of Mercy Housing, is the Chicago area’s premier nonprofit developer and manager of affordable housing. Mercy Housing Lakefront currently owns 16 properties in Illinois that are home to more than 2,000 residents, including 450 children.