Developer proposes big mixed-use project for Williamson Street (Wisconsin State Journal)

Wisconsin State Journal
(9/24/2013 2:58 PM, Jeff Glaze)

A developer’s proposal for the biggest project ever on eclectic Williamson Street is testing the vision for height, density and land use on the famed Near East Side thoroughfare.

Baldwin Development Group is proposing a $46 million mixed-use project with 220 apartments, about 6,000 square feet of commercial space and 368 parking spaces that would fill in parking lots at 722 Williamson St. The site is in the Third Lake Ridge Historic District.

The project, set between the historic Madison Candy Co. and Olds buildings, would be four stories along the street but step back to seven stories mid-site and then 10 stories at the rear of the property facing the Capital City Trail and massive MG&E facilities and its soaring smokestacks to the north.

The building would feature commercial space — perhaps a restaurant — with large garage door-style openings to the street, rooftop terraces, a corridor along the east side of the building with public art or small shops connecting the street to the bike trail, co-work spaces, bicycle amenities and some lower-cost units.

“We’re trying to create a next generation of living,” said Baldwin managing partner Jim Bower. “Our best sense is this is a huge economic catalyst for the street.”

The proposal is getting a mixed reaction in the Marquette neighborhood, with many embracing a dynamic plan offering quality infill development and others voicing concern about height, traffic, parking and the fact that the concept doesn’t comply with the decade-old Better Urban Infill Development (BUILD) II plan that covers the 600 through 1100 blocks of Williamson Street.

Lindsey Lee, who lives across the street from the site, owns Ground Zero coffee shop next door to it

and is chairman of the neighborhood association’s Preservation and Development Committee, supports the project in general.

“This is a site where density can be strategically absorbed,” he said. “I’d like to see the design be top-notch. It should be high architecture.”

John Coleman, another member of the Preservation and Development Committee, who is opposed, said the proposal has positive elements but that the building height deviates too much from city plans and that the structure lacks a positive interface with the bike path. There’s no building of similar height along the path, and MG&E’s smokestacks are less massive and farther away, he said.

“The neighborhood will be flexible, but the developer needs to come a lot closer to conforming with existing plans,” he said.

The neighborhood association already has formed a special subcommittee to work with the developer on what’s seen as the first test of the BUILD II Plan, which limits height to five stories plus two additional stories for strong architecture, parking and affordable housing.

Ald. Marsha Rummel, 6th District, who has not taken a position, has asked the developers to show an example of what a project would look like if it complied with the BUILD II plan.

“The planning process that created these standards was a 2½-year process, and it’s pretty much worked well in this historic district,” Rummel said. “It acknowledges places for height and respects the scale.”

The project would be built on a 1.3-acre site that now has surface parking largely owned by Williamson Associates LLC, an offshoot of The Rifkin Group, and a row of surface parking spaces that serve the Madison Candy Co. building owned by architect John Martens. The building hosts Ground Zero and the Eldorado Grill.

The developers must provide parking for neighboring businesses, which counts for roughly half of the spaces in a four-story garage with one underground deck and three above ground, and also resolve environmental challenges on the site, Bower said. The height at the north end of the project helps the economics of the project and allows a lower profile on Williamson Street and terraces that break up the massing of the structure, he said.

Martens said he has been approached multiple times about selling part of his parking lot for redevelopment and always rejected advances until the one from Baldwin Development Group. He said he believes the developers are serious about protecting the scale of Williamson Street, are open to input and are crafting a strong proposal.

The developers will make an informal presentation to the city’s Urban Design Commission on Wednesday.