Housing

The Madison City Council on Tuesday displayed a stunning reversal of course and approved the rezoning of Raemisch Farm at 4150 Packers Ave.

The council voted 15-3 to approve a rezoning, switching the plot of land from zoned for agriculture to residential. The vote was a full 180 from previous council votes on proposals for the development. In August 2021, the council voted 15-2 to deny the project, and voted 14-6 to deny it a second time in February. 

A developer hopes to begin demolishing the closed, 12-story Downtown building that housed Paisan’s restaurant in October and start construction next summer on a roughly $35 million, 15-story housing and commercial project to replace it.

Wilson Street Redevelopment hopes to begin tearing down the compromised 1971 building at 131 W. Wilson St. in early October — a process expected take about eight months — and start building the new structure in June or July with 263 apartments, commercial space including a coffee shop and bakery, and underground parking. It could open in the first or second quarter of 2025.

A developer wants to demolish the shuttered Market Square Theater on Madison’s West Side to build a $22 million development that includes housing, commercial space and parking.

The proposal and a separate plan for a four-story, mixed-use redevelopment at a nearby site are the first major projects offered since the city approved a sweeping Odana Area Plan in September for housing and mixed-use developments in a 1,044-acre area roughly bordered by the Beltline, Mineral Point Road and University Research Park.

Nine nonprofits and cooperatives are in line to share $3.1 million in city affordable housing and federal funds to help lower-income people secure, fix and maintain housing, Madison Community Development Division staff say.

It’s the first time the city will provide nonprofits and cooperatives access to the city’s Affordable Housing Fund without also requiring them to seek federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Money from the fund, budgeted at more than $6 million for 2021, has been used mainly to help for-profit developers secure federal tax credits that usually cover more than half the cost of projects and allow them to charge lower rents.

After an 11-month search, the city has identified a grocer to be the anchor commercial tenant in a $42 million, six-story redevelopment underway on the South Side.

The city is finalizing negotiations with Maurer’s Urban Market, which is based in Wisconsin Dells, to fill the 24,000-square-foot commercial space in the Truman Olson redevelopment, called Fourteen02 Park, on 3.5 acres of what had been long vacant, city-owned land at 815 Cedar St., formerly 1402 S. Park St.

A developer is proposing to raze the Zor Shriners temple near the Beltline on Madison’s Far West Side for a housing project with 479 units in two buildings and underground parking.

Madison city staff are recommending a Minneapolis firm for a major Downtown development that would replace the obsolete State Street Campus Garage with housing, commercial space, public parking and an intercity bus garage.

While Mortenson Development got the nod, city staff say three other finalists — CA Ventures of Chicago, CRG of Chicago, and Smith Gilbane of Milwaukee — could also produce a high-quality redevelopment to reimagine the prominent site at 415 N. Lake St., just a half block off State Street and Library Mall.

As big apartment projects move into more parts of the city, a developer is proposing a roughly $90 million, six-story redevelopment with 445 apartments and parking adjacent to Tenney Park and overlooking Lake Mendota.

Vermilion Development of Chicago is seeking to demolish a two-story, 46,952-square-foot office building at 1617 Sherman Ave. for the redevelopment that would offer four buildings ranging from three to six stories, the latter height to capture views of the lake and state Capitol.