News

While you are out

When students return to school in the fall, much of Madison will be in shambles.

Condominiums will crop up throughout the downtown area, the SERF will take on three new floors and Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry might open next to the Nitty Gritty.

Property owners will construct five condominiums this summer: one in place of the Badger Pantry on Gorham Street, one on the corner of Randall and Spring streets, two on West Washington Avenue and one next to Riley’s on Gorham Street.

The Lake Street and University Avenue Burger King will be demolished to make way for a Central Properties apartment complex, and much of West Johnson Street will be revamped and repaved.

UW students will also notice a new streetlight on Johnson Street connecting the dorms and Murray Mall.

Dotty’s owner Jeff Stanley has not received definite approval from the Alcohol License Review Committee yet to sell liquor at but if he obtains a license he said he plans to reopen the burger joint on 319 N. Frances St. over the summer, so students can dine there by the fall.

“I’m just praying I can communicate to these guys that this is not a gin joint,” Stanley said in March.

Although construction plans are underway for the State Street Redesign Project, the earliest changes to the project will not come until the fall, with the addition of new bus shelters.

The Overture Center’s construction will also not be very noticeable, because construction workers will concentrate on the center’s interior over the summer.