The city took the next steps in creating an alliance with a Madison development company Tuesday evening after officials joined together to analyze a proposal for a new downtown fire station facility.

Members of the Board of Estimates met to discuss the authorization of a request for the provision of architectural and engineering design consultation services for Fire Station No. 1 and the Fire Administration Building.

The proposals included a review of the location of these buildings, a review of the structures each facility is currently located in, budget allocations, assessments of the development and preparation designs, plans and specifications, preparation of bid documents and more.

“All of this right here is to get the ball rolling,” Ald. Joe Clausius, District 17, said. “This is all a review of the new downtown Fire and Administrative Offices.”

Development company Hovde Properties originally had planned to do a major development, which would include condominiums and shops, Clausius said. Mayor Paul Soglin decided it was necessary to replace the Fire Administrative headquarters, as the Fire Department has outgrown it. 

Hovde Properties is a real estate developer company run by an old Madison family now in its second or third generation, Clausius said.

“So we said, why don’t we partner with Hovde,” Clausius said. “We’ll be building a new Fire Station No. 1 as well as a new administrative building as part of this Hovde development with the condominiums.”

According to Madison Police Department Chief Noble Wray, there was an earlier option discussed with Hovde Properties of combining the police administration and the fire administration.

These options caused concern because the MPD Central District headquarters area was just remodeled and because oftentimes, detaching the administrative offices totally from an operational standpoint is extremely inefficient, Wray said.

“We would -I would- never advocate separating the administration from its central district or having access to officers on a daily basis from an operational standpoint,” Wray said. “We prefer this juncture continue to explore different options as we also just recently remodeled the area.”

This plan is the first concrete action by the city to move toward being a partner in this proposed development project that involves selling the existing fire department properties on West Johnson Street to the Hovde developers, Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said.

The apartment tower would have first floor retail space and underground parking that would incorporate a new fire department facility in that building.

If the entire plan works out, the current tax space would be greatly increased, Clausius said. Additionally, he said the city would also get a brand new fire station for the downtown area and state-of-the-art administrative offices for the fire department.

“Essentially we would be getting this all done right now, because it’s going to have to be done within the next four or five years,” Clausius said. “At that time, it might be very difficult to take the existing space we have now and cram something into there; we might have to totally move it somewhere else, but this way it can stay right there.”