Mayor Paul Soglin moved forward Tuesday with efforts to develop a vacant lot northeast of the Capitol by appointing community leaders to a committee set on getting a project off the ground.

The lot, located on the 800 block of East Washington Avenue next to Breese Stevens Field, is a full city block and nearly five acres, according to Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2. The committee will work to approve a project by late February, she said.

The property currently functions as a parking lot.

Sponsored by Soglin and Maniaci, the committee will begin a bidding process for the development of the property in November, according to Maniaci. Proposals will be due to the committee in December, with deliberations to begin in January.

Maniaci said a late-February selection would hopefully result in the development beginning in June 2013.

“We’re definitely not sitting on this; we’re moving on it,” Maniaci said. “It’s going to be so fantastic for the neighborhood and the city to see this property developed.”

According to Maniaci, Soglin appointed two alders – Lauren Cnare, District 3, and Mark Clear, District 19 – to the committee. They will also be joined with two local neighborhood presidents and three citizens, one of which is a former Madison alder.

The development on the East Washington site will probably feature a mixture of housing, commercial and retail functions, Maniaci said.

Downtown Madison Inc. President Susan Schmitz said she would like to see something similar.

“There’s plenty of potential in terms of service,” she said. “You already have quite a bit of housing from the neighborhoods around there.”

Maniaci said community members have already reached out to her to express their excitement about the process moving forward.
She also said she has received phone calls expressing interests in submitting proposals and competing for the site.

“This is very much a desirable piece of property that the city holds,” Maniaci said. “I’m confident that we will have competitive proposals.”

The East Washington site is a little more than half a mile from the Capitol Square.

The property did have a potential suitor in Urban Land Interests last spring, but the organization was unable to reach an agreement with the city in the end, according to Maniaci.

She and Schmitz both said the development of the property would be critical in the overall growth for that corridor of the Capitol.

“The Capitol East District is still kind of in its infancy,” Schmitz said. “This is another project that’s going to give it some direction.”