Leaders of a city with as rich a history as Madison must maintain a perpetual balancing act between continuing development and preserving the city’s history. On one hand, Madison is a thriving city where people want to live, and this necessitates bigger, nicer and newer buildings. On the other hand, no one wants to see a beautiful, 100-year-old building torn down so another cookie cutter apartment building can be built in its place.

For its part, Madison has maintained this balance about as well as can be expected. While the city has plenty of fancy new buildings scattered around, all it takes is a stroll through a neighborhood like Mansion Hill – just a few blocks from the Capitol – to get a clear picture of Madison’s vibrant past.

In this light, it’s not surprising that the proposal to build a new 12-story development on the 500 block of State Street – dubbed “the Hub” – has garnered its fair share of criticism. This is understandable. The 500 block has a number of high-quality, well-known restaurants that would be displaced if the Hub development goes ahead. It would be a shame if State Street’s unique charm was lost to rows of high-rise apartments.

In this case, however, it seems the city is going about the redevelopment in a perfectly responsible manner. To begin with, the city is working with business owners on the 500 block to make sure that anyone who wants to find a new location for their business can do so. Putting existing businesses in a situation where they have to relocate is far from ideal. However, developing in a dense, downtown area has its cost, and sometimes businesses must be displaced to make room for more modern buildings.  

The high cost of the new apartments also raises concern. Any time a new luxury high-rise is proposed for the downtown area, there is an immediate outcry about the lack of affordable student housing and for good reason. Anyone who has tried to find an affordable apartment within a reasonable radius of campus can attest to the high cost of living downtown.

However, since the Hub development is barely displacing any existing apartments (besides a small number above stores on the 500 block), it will lead to a pure increase in housing supply. Regardless of how much they cost, this will still cause a net decrease in citywide rent. The people who move into the new apartments will be leaving more vacancies in other, cheaper apartments, making it easier for everyone else to find housing.

As is often the case, the situation is more complex than this, raising many potential confounding effects, like the possibility of expensive apartments driving up rents at other apartments in the area. If hundreds of new, expensive apartments flood the market, other landlords might be able to get away with raising their own prices. However, it’s extremely unlikely any of these effects will outweigh the supply increase.

As long as it remains profitable to do so, developers will want to continue building downtown. This is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. However, if it takes place unchecked, it could eventually harm the city’s future. In this case, it appears the city is making sure all the proper safeguards are in place to ensure that the Hub is a net positive for the city. 

Joe Timmerman ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in math and economics.