Members of the Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee heard updates on several area projects Monday, including a proposed apartment building near the Kohl Center and the new performance center near the Chazen Museum.
According to Melissa Huggins, founding principal at Urban Assets, a consulting firm working on the project, the apartment proposed for the corner of West Mifflin Street and North Bedford Street has undergone some slight changes.
The proposed building would have 185 units with a total of 353 beds, 105 parking spaces, 56 moped parking spaces and 261 bicycle parking spaces, she said.
It will also include several townhomes facing North Bedford Street that will be accessible from the street and not from within the building, she said.
The original proposal, which called for 140 parking spaces, was met with some concerns from members of the Capitol Neighborhood Association in early November.
The building would be marketed to students as well as young professionals, with two separate towers designed to separate the two groups, Huggins said.
Committee members Monday expressed concerns about the way the two distinct towers would be marketed, citing a city law prohibiting housing discrimination based on student status.
Huggins said students won’t be turned away from living in the young professional tower, but said the student tower would feature furnished apartments while the young professional tower would feature unfurnished units.
“The idea is that they will all be comparable in terms of the countertops, and the refrigerators and things like that, but they won’t be furnished for the young professionals,” she said.
The units in the building will be similar in price to similar buildings, including Grand Central, Xo1 and the Hub, she said.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said he is interested in learning more about the project and the interaction between students and other residents.
“I’m curious to see how the flow between residents and students will happen throughout the building,” he said.
At this point in the process, it’s too soon to pass judgment on the project, Resnick said. There are still serious questions to ask before approving it, he said.
“This is a new model to the campus area, and I think there should be a robust discussion before the project is passed,” he said.
Huggins said the project has an “aggressive timetable,” and hopes to begin construction as soon as March in order to open the building by August 2016.
Developers will present final plans to the committee at its January meeting, she said.
The committee also received an update from University of Wisconsin’s director of Campus Planning and Landscape Architecture Gary Brown about the UW School of Music’s planned music performance center.
The project will be built in three phases, with phase one including the rehearsal hall and a 315-seat recital hall, Brown said.
UW School of Music moving forward on plans for new recital hall
Brown addressed concerns from the committee about parking and transportation, saying an additional turn lane would be added for Lake Street traffic turning right onto University Avenue.
Additionally, those working on the project are working with the city and other campus departments to ensure parking is available for both music performances and other events around campus, Brown said.
The project is scheduled to begin construction on phase one in 2015, with an opening date sometime in spring 2017, he said.
