A new King Library branch, with apartments above it, is finally moving forward.

The long-delayed plans to build a new King Drive library branch, with affordable apartments attached, is proceeding toward a spring construction start in Milwaukee's Harambee neighborhood.

The Plan Commission on Monday recommended selling the current library site, at the northwest corner of North King Drive and West Locust Street, as well as two other neighboring parcels to the project's developers. The three city-owned parcels are to sell for $1 each.

That sale, which needs Common Council approval, is coming more than six years after a proposal first surfaced to replace the 52-year-old King Library with a new development that includes housing.

"This project has been a long time coming," said Sam McGovern-Rowen, Milwaukee Public Library project manager.

Young Development Group LLC's initial plan from December 2016 called for a four-story building with the library and retail space on the ground floor and 44 market-rate apartments on the upper levels. But Young Development had trouble raising financing and eventually dropped out of the project.

The revised $37.2 million proposal from developers General Capital Group LLP and Emem Group LLC calls for a four-story, 42-unit building with a new 18,000-square-foot King Library and retail space on the first floor.

The developers also plan to build a four-story, 43-unit apartment building at the block's northern end, at West Chambers Street.

Meanwhile, a small portion of the former Garfield Theatre's lobby, in the block's middle at 2933-2957 N. King Drive, is to be part of eight new live-work units. The rest of the dilapidated former theater will be razed for surface parking.

General Capital and Emem Group received federal affordable housing tax credits in 2021 to help finance the project. Developers sell those tax credits to raise cash and then obtain a bank loan and other financing.

In return for tax credits, the development must provide most of the apartments at below-market rents to people earning no more than 60% of the local median income.

But the King LIbrary project, like other affordable apartment developments throughout Wisconsin, ran into delays because of higher construction costs fueled by inflation.

General Capital and Emem Group were forced to obtain additional financing sources, including $940,000 in city funds through a tax incremental financing district and $1.5 million from the Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund via a federal American Rescue Plan Act grant.

Four other Milwaukee library branches have been replaced by new libraries with upper-level apartments.

The city pays for the portions of the new buildings that have the library spaces, which it owns. The rest of the projects are owned and financed by development firms.

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