Mifflin Street may see construction begin for a new high-rise housing project as soon as April or May of 2015 if project developers continue to receive positive feedback from city groups.
Developers from CA Ventures and architects from Shepley Bulfinch met with the Mifflin neighborhood to discuss the 225,000-square-foot, 193 unit development which is expected to replace the Negus Container & Packaging Company located at the corner of West Mifflin Street and North Bedford Street.
The project was designed with one eight-story tower and one 10-story tower, each catering to either students or young professionals with unique amenities for the two demographics, connected by the first four floors dedicated to parking ramps and townhouse units.
The student tower is proposed to be 10 stories high and will be located on the north side of the building facing the UW-Madison campus. The tower will be more attractive to students with furnished units that vary from one, two and four bedrooms.
The east tower will be eight stories high and will cater to young professionals offering unfurnished one and two bedroom units.
The project also features two lobbies, one of which will have a curved glass exterior that may feature glass art from the UW-Madison Glass Lab located on Mifflin Street.
“We just wanted this [lobby] to be as open and porous as possible to make it into sort of a beacon,” Tom Chinnock of Shepley Bulfinch said.
Members of the Mifflin Street neighborhood generally supported the project with some opposition to the overall height of the towers and insufficient parking space.
Developers have already met with the Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee and Urban Design Commission and received positive feedback from both groups. The project will continue to move forward with city officials awaiting approval from Madison’s Planning Commission in February 2015.
