A Madison landlord revealed potential design ideas Thursday for a four-story apartment building on West Main Street in place of three student houses.

Landlord Jan Klund said at a neighborhood meeting that he plans to tear down the 510, 512 and 514 W. Main St. houses after the current tenants’ leases expire in August.

“When I purchased the houses, I always had the intent of possibly tearing them down,” Klund said. “So I haven’t fixed it up a lot in the past five years.”

Several Madison residents at the meeting were concerned about demolishing the 105-year-old houses, due to their age and value to the character of the neighborhood.

Klund said 512 W. Main St. is the only house worth preserving and said he would consider moving the house to land he owns on 446 W. Doty St.

Senior Nick Buechel, a tenant of 512 W. Main St., laughed when he was told the house could be moved to another location to preserve it.

“They couldn’t move this place two inches; it would fall down,” Buechel said. “This place is a piece of crap.”

Buechel and his roommates said the house has holes in the floor, graffiti in the basement, poor heat and light bulbs that burn out once a week.

“They should not save this — period,” Buechel said.

At the meeting, one Madison resident said although the house is in poor shape, it has still has value and is not beyond repair.

In response, development team member Joe Krupp said the investment of moving and restoring the house would be beyond the budget of everyone in the room.

Buechel said he did not think a high-rise apartment in the area would bother the neighborhood, which primarily consists of students.

“The guys who come here to rob us might be a little upset and wonder where the house is, but that’s it,” he said.

Klund said the apartment’s rent would be reasonably priced and open to both students and long-time residents. The current designs include 19 efficiencies, 20 two-bedroom and eight studio apartments.

The designs introduced all had three stories facing the street with a fourth story added on to the back side of the building. One design portrayed a mostly brick exterior with a front-porch entryway, another added white stucco to the exterior, and the third design was a variety of colors including mustard-colored stucco.

Klund said the next step in planning is a final design using public feedback taken from the meeting. He said he would tear the houses down in August and that construction would begin immediately in September or October.

The apartments will provide parking above and below ground, but none would be available to non-residents.

Some Madison residents worried the apartment building would aggravate the parking crunch downtown. One resident said the city should increase parking-permit prices in order to prevent students from bringing their cars to school, swallowing the available street spaces.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said in response that the frustration of finding a parking space and moving a car every 48 hours is a large enough incentive to leave a car at home.

“The parking permit simply covers the cost of issuing the permit,” he said.