Madison could see a new multi-million dollar apartment rising up near campus, as a new proposal looks to bring a high-rise to Bedford Street by the 2016 school year.
The early designs for the building were presented before the Mifflin West district, part of the Capitol Neighborhood Association, during a neighborhood meeting Wednesday. The apartment will be located at 114 N. Bedford St., behind the Madison Metropolitan School District building and at the corner of Mifflin and Bedford Streets.
CA Ventures, a student housing developer, and architectural firm Shepley Bulfinch are teaming up on the project. Both companies have worked on similar projects across the country at schools like Duke, Harvard and Purdue University.
The building is expected to be primarily eight to 10 stories at the highest, Tom Chinnock of Shepley Bulfinch said. Chinnock said the initial room count is 185 units with 383 beds, along with 140 parking units and 237 spaces on bike racks.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he thinks the project is a promising new development for the area.
“I don’t want to pre-judge the proposal in advance of future neighborhood meetings, but at first glance the project meets all the requirements of the city’s zoning code,” Verveer said. “The details are going to be extremely important. I would say that my initial conversation with the developer indicates that they appreciate the special, unique nature of the Mifflin neighborhood.”
Verveer said the developers are working to set back the building enough that the height of the apartment will not overshadow or interfere with the feel of the neighborhood.
While it is too early for a definite price tag, Verveer said the land alone is worth millions, and the apartment complex will be more like Lucky or the new Hub housing complexes.
Students and young professionals are expected to be the primary tenants at the new apartment, Chinnock said. However, some members of the neighborhood committee said they worried about the city’s big focus on the young professional demographic, or what some call the Epic generation.
“Everyone is building for the ‘Epicons,’ the young professionals,” Peggy Lemahieu, resident of Mifflin neighborhood, said. “I’m a skeptic. I have a hard time believing we’re going to be renting out all of what’s going on downtown.”
Other concerns some committee members expressed were the high number of parking spaces for a primarily student-focused apartment, as well as the need to be creative with the design so that the apartment stands out from all the other new downtown housing developments.
Lemahieu said as a member of the Mifflin neighborhood, she is getting tired of seeing every new housing unit look like “a blob.”
“I have to say, every new building looks the same to me … It’s time to be creative, please. We want to make this a high-density area, let’s make it a nice looking, attractive, creative high-density area,” she said.
Unlike other area apartment complexes, the developers said they do not have plans yet for any retail space on the first floor, though the neighborhood members urged them to consider adding a small cafe or a similar business.
The designs are still in the very early stages of development, but Chris Johnson, senior project manager of CA Ventures, said he expects the project to start moving along swiftly if they are aiming for a fall 2016 opening.
Though the firms are no strangers to college housing developments, this is the first time they are bringing their designs to Madison.
Verveer said the developers would not be approaching this project without supportive market research, citing the historically low downtown apartment vacancy rates as a key factor for choosing Madison.
