Viroqua opens new workforce housing with childcare center

VIROQUA, Wis. (WKBT) — City officials celebrated the opening of Main Street Apartments Friday, a 65-unit workforce housing development that combines affordable apartments with a childcare facility for working families in western Wisconsin.

The development features housing units, retail space and a 6,000-square-foot childcare facility called the Bumble and Bloom Early Learning Center. The center will serve approximately 65 children ranging from six weeks to six years old.

La Crosse-based VARC will operate the early learning center, which city leaders say addresses a critical need for working families in the area.

Governor Tony Evers attended Friday`s ribbon-cutting ceremony and praised the community-wide effort that made the development possible.

"There were so many players putting this together — the city, but you name it, anybody who is anybody in western Wisconsin had something to do with this," Evers said. "But at the end of the day it was a local project with local people."...

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Leo’s notes: Viroqua’s new Main Street Apartments pairs 65 units of workforce housing with an on-site childcare center—meeting two of rural Wisconsin’s most pressing needs in one project. By combining affordability, family support, and local collaboration, it’s a model of holistic workforce investment—a model many of our communities ought to watch...