Tommy Washbush
Mad City Frites’ application for a beer license ignited a debate about State Street.
Now that State Street’s french fry war is over, who won?
Was the mayor’s battle with the Common Council justified? Have we turned our most famous thoroughfare into a restaurant district? And if so, is that bad?
“I understand that, for the customer, it’s a good thing: more choices,” says Dino Christ, owner of Nick’s Restaurant, a longtime fixture at 226 State St. “But at the same time it’s so much more competition. The downtown is becoming one huge food court, and I don’t think that is good unless you also mix in more retail stores.”
Until recently this has been a battle based on perception, but two new reports add a bushel of facts, making clear that the war for State Street and downtown is just beginning.
Mayor Paul Soglin kicked off the fight during the Common Council’s consideration of a beer license for Mad City Frites, 320 State St. It became a flashpoint. The mayor argued that we’re losing State Street’s retail stores to bars and food, and enough was enough.
“The issue was never about any specific restaurant,” says Soglin. “The issue is State Street and the $100 million investment in the Mall and the Capital Concourse. I question whether it is wise to spend this kind of money — funds focused on strengthening retail and residential — on liquor-focused businesses.”
Only one alder voted against the license. Soglin vetoed, and he was overridden Sept. 29. But the issues remain. They include a retail environment that’s moving increasingly online, differing socioeconomic models and even the definition of “downtown.”
“I think it’s important to look at this as a positive,” says Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison Inc., whose mission is to forge public and private partnerships to keep the downtown economically vital.
DMI’s 2015 “State of the Downtown” report, released Sept. 29, details changes to the central Business Improvement District, roughly bounded by, but not including, Regent and Park streets, lakes Monona and Mendota and, four blocks east of the capitol, Franklin Street.
Within that area, the percentage of food and drink businesses has actually remained somewhat consistent: 35% in 1998, 39.5% today.
What has changed is the mix: Retail is way down and the number of service businesses — hair salons, for instance — is way up. In 1998, retail and service accounted for 50% and 12% of businesses respectively. Today it’s 25% and 35%.
Percentages can be misleading, however, and some may find the raw numbers alarming: There were eight coffee shops/cafes in the district in 1998. Today there are almost twice as many, 15. There were 20 bars/taverns/pubs then, 27 today. In 1998 there were 47 restaurants and specialty food/drink establishments.
Today there are 99.
A draft city study released Sept. 21 documents similar contrasts. It looks at square-foot ground-floor use over time, but only through 2014. It therefore does not include large, recently completed mixed-use developments such as the 100 Block Foundation Project, near the Overture Center for the Arts; Ovation 309, on West Johnson Street near the corner with State; or the massive Hub Madison project, on the 500 block of State Street.
Among its findings: In 1989, food and drink establishments accounted for 21% of all State Street ground-floor space. That doubled by 2014, to 42%. On the Square and one block off, food and drink skyrocketed from 8% to 24% of total ground-floor space.
Technology’s part of all this. More of us shop online, which has contributed to the decline of local retail all over the country, not just in Madison. There is also a new population of millennials in Madison, thanks to tech companies like Epic Systems Corp. Young and affluent, these tech workers like to live and play downtown.
“These residents require services in their immediate area that are convenient and social,” notes Margaret Watson, CEO of Steve Brown Apartments. “This includes entertainment venues, restaurants, shopping, yoga studios, museums, arts, sporting arenas, etc. [But] there still are ‘basic goods needs,’ such as cellular stores, bike shops and grocery.”
“Restaurants and bars are certainly an important part of it,” observes Edward Shinnick, co-owner of Porta Bella restaurant, 425 N. Frances St. “But so is retail, and from what I’ve personally seen in the 50 years I’ve been doing this, we’ve lost a lot of the retail presence. To me, that’s a big consideration if I’m looking for someplace to live.”
And then there’s what started this debate: alcohol. “I have for a long time urged the city to have limits on alcohol outlets in all business areas, but not many city council members support this,” says Sandi Torkildson, co-owner of A Room of One’s Own books and gifts, 315 W. Gorham St.
There’s no city database to determine how the number of liquor licenses has changed over time. However, because of the high number of alcohol-related calls for emergency service, city staff previously recommended a plan setting aside State Street as a special alcohol management district, identifying it as “the only area [in the city] where we can justify an outright prohibition on certain types of alcohol beverage licenses.”
Last July, the city created an Alcohol Overlay District, restricting any new tavern or retail sales of alcohol in a small area roughly bounded by State, University, Lake and Broom. The district went into effect just as the city’s alcohol license density ordinance, or ALDO, which prevented new taverns in a much larger area of downtown, expired.
Many approved city planning documents hammer at the importance of diverse downtown retail and service business. It’s mentioned, for example, in six of the 10 specific recommendations for State Street in the 2012 Downtown Plan, which advises “discouraging overdevelopment of similar types of establishments [of any kind] that could collectively diminish State Street’s overall attractiveness as a destination for a broad range of users” — presumably more than the thirsty and hungry.
Schmitz believes the situation will correct itself naturally. Take Exact Sciences and the Judge Doyle Square project. “Once they’re built and they have 400 people working there making an average of $70,000-$75,000, well, there you’ve got a market for more businesses, and so businesses will be interested in coming to the downtown.”
Sam Chehade, owner of the Michelangelo’s and Fair Trade coffee houses, 114 and 418 State St., is less optimistic. His business is good, he says, and he doesn’t want to gripe, but he’s deeply concerned about predatory chains, “Chicago prices for some of the retail spaces” and, most of all, sustainability.
“People say, ‘Well, Madison is just growing.’ Yeah, but growth has to be responsible,” he says. “It can’t be like the old Wild West. There has to be discipline.”
He echoes Christ at Nick’s. “It’s like a food court. It’s like a feeding frenzy,” he says. “You see [restaurants and bars] come and you see them go. This trend might accelerate in the next year or two. All of this growth without any checks and balances is just going to make it worse down the road.”
Even Schmitz says that action may perhaps be desirable: “I do think we need to be ready for other businesses — maybe help solicit other businesses to come.”
Balancing the competing interests won’t be easy. But Chehade says the stakes are high.
“The downtown is becoming more and more impersonal,” he warns. “The little funky stores are going to be disappearing.”