A new apartment building is in the cards for the corner of Lake Street and University Avenue. The Burger King that currently stands there was purchased recently by Central Properties, which hopes to develop the new complex in the near future.
Harold Langhammer of Central Properties said the city has already approved plans to build a new building where the Burger King currently stands. The new building will be four stories, with commercial venues on the basement level and first floor and 27 apartments on the upper levels.
The apartments will be mostly one-bedroom apartments, although there will be a few two-bedrooms. There will be one three-bedroom apartment and one four-bedroom. The rent has not yet been determined for these apartments.
The apartments will be geared toward students, Langhammer said.
“It’s a good location; it’s close to campus and shopping. And it is going to be across from the new University Square when it is built,” Langhammer said.
Central Properties also owns the Collegiate apartment building at 515 Lake St.
Ald. Todd Jarrell, District 8, said the Collegiate is one of the nicer high-rise apartments in the area. The building is eight stories tall and contains mostly three- and four-bedroom apartments. Langhammer said the new building, which will be called the Varsity, will balance the Collegiate by providing smaller housing units for those who want them.
Some University of Wisconsin students, including sophomore Sean Dekok, are disappointed that Burger King is now gone, though. Dekok said he was sure poor service and poor food were the reason behind the venue’s closure but that he will still miss the restaurant.
“It sucks; it was dirt-cheap, accessible food,” Dekok said.
Other students think that, although there would be a few drawbacks, the new building will be a good place to live.
“It’s a very convenient place to live; it’s a great location for class and partying. But it would be loud because of the bars,” said UW freshman Ben Williams.
Jarrell heard about the property’s sale in the fall and said that the proposed building is a good thing to put at that location. He also said that it looks like a nice building, with an upper story set back away from the street.
“It’s a good thing; the building is not so huge, so it won’t dwarf anything in the area, and it is multi-use, which is always good,” Jarrell said.
Currently, there are no plans to do anything with the building that is still standing. It has not been decided if anything will go into the space before construction on the new building begins.
