Courtesy Knothe & Bruce Architects
A proposal from Peerless Development would replace Hong Kong Café and Choles Floral (Feb. 2026)
The proposed development would take up nearly the entire 1100 block of Regent Street.
A proposed 113-unit apartment building for Regent Street would take the place of two longtime businesses on the busy corridor: Hong Kong Café and Choles Floral Company.
Terry Leung, owner of Hong Kong Café, tells Isthmus in an interview that his decision to sell his building is largely financial. The building at 2. S. Mills Street was listed for sale at $3.58 million in 2024.
“Do you know why Porta Bella is closing?” asks Leung, referencing the 58-year old downtown Italian restaurant, soon to be replaced by student housing. In Leung’s view, “there will be more and more restaurants closing” this year.
“Everything is so expensive. Taxes are up. It's hard to find labor,” says Leung. “Right now is about time to sell [our] building and say sayonara.” And, he says, he’s hoping to move “somewhere warmer.”
Hong Kong Café, a Cantonese restaurant known for its weekend dim sum brunch, has anchored the corner of Mills and Regent streets for more than three decades and is beloved by its near-west-side and UW-Madison campus neighbors.
John Krystofiak, manager of Choles Floral, said he was unavailable to talk when reached Thursday by phone. The shop’s website says the business has served the Madison area since 1910.
According to a Feb. 19 email from city council staffer Debbie Fields to Ald. Tag Evers, the proposed development by Chicago-based developer Peerless Development would include 1,300 square feet of commercial space and a mix of studio, two-bedroom, four-bedroom and five-bedroom units. There would be underground parking for “approximately 60 cars and 133 bikes,” Fields wrote.
Jaymes Langrehr, a spokesperson for the Madison’s department of planning, community and economic development, says in an email that the developer has met with planning division staff to discuss their plans for the site but has not “submitted any formal applications as of yet.”
“Staff expects that application to be submitted sometime in March, which would begin the approval process,” says Langrehr.
Knothe & Bruce Architects submitted a demolition request on Feb. 6 to the city for the buildings housing Hong Kong Cafe and Choles, as well as the parking lot at 1111 Regent St. That request is still going through city approvals.
Knothe & Bruce Architects and Peerless Development did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A neighborhood meeting about the proposals is planned for 6 p.m. Feb. 25.
