Developer succeeds through sheer persistence: Cindy Shaffer

Sean Ryan (Reporter - Milwaukee Business Journal)

Construction of tall apartment buildings in the Mequon Town Center was well underway outside the windows of the American Legion Post as developer Cindy Shaffer sat describing how people thought the project could never happen.

The skepticism was warranted. Mequon hadn't seen a multifamily housing building go up in two decades, and city funding for private projects is rare, as are three-and-a-half story buildings. But Shaffer, in partnership with Milwaukee-based WiRED Properties, made all of those things happen while also building a new home for the local American Legion Post in the development.

"It's a lot of hard work and it's persistence," Shaffer said. "I don't take 'no' for an answer. There's many different ways to skin a cat."

Mequon Town Center, with 28 apartments and significant retail space at Mequon and Cedarburg roads, is set for completion this summer. Shaffer, owner of Shaffer Development LLC, is on to her next challenge, a $17 million redevelopment of a contaminated site called the "lumberyard" in Grafton. The first phase of that project with 59 apartments will begin later this year. Read More ...