Radelet works for public and private

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Meticulous attention to detail drew Timothy Radelet into law and, in a couple of ways, into state procedure.

Radelet primarily grew up in East Lansing, Mich., where he stayed for an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture from Michigan State. His graduate work at the University of Wisconsin was sidetracked by an interest in the legal side of development and subsequent enrollment in law school.

“I became really interested in figuring out why subdivisions look the same,” he said. “No matter where you go, houses look the same, roads look the same and there’s basically all of this urban repetition after World War II.”

After graduating in 1980 from the University of Wisconsin Law School, Radelet began his first stint at what is now known as the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, and soon was elevated to the role of general counsel.

Three years later, Radelet moved to the private side of real estate and development law in practice at Foley & Lardner LLP. It was there that some of Radelet’s self-mapped forms became the norm.

A nearly 12-page property funding lease he created is now basically the template to apply to the Wisconsin Council for Affordable and Rural Housing. And his methods of financing packages lend themselves to both broad use and more tangled applications, such as on the YWCA in downtown Madison.

Of course Radelet would be known for creating complex boilerplates, Joe Shumow, who worked with him at WHEDA and Foley, said.

“Tim harkens back to the 1800’s style of law,” he said. “It’s intensive, one-on-one; he thoroughly explains everything.”

Shumow, of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren SC, chuckled as he remembered Radelet, in his early days at WHEDA, taking time to give him a 20-minute rundown on the “essence of an easement.”

“[He is] naturally a teacher,” Shumow said; something Radelet attributes to his father, a professor, and mother, a teacher.

Radelet, who returned to WHEDA four years ago, said he never lost the drive to be part of a consistent, detailed approach to improve housing in Wisconsin.

“Each time we do a mortgage loan [or] make a grant … hopefully I’m able to work on it and make it better than the time we did it before so the resources WHEDA can offer are the most successful for everyone,” Radelet said. “It all translates into a better housing product for the whole state.”