CAS4 Architecture
Developer Lance McGrath hopes to break ground Oct. 1 on the project which he argues is “compatible with” the area’s historic districts.
A proposed development requiring demolition of Essen Haus and another building has neighbors and preservationists concerned. For the most part they’re not worried about what’s coming down. They worry about what might be going up.
“This is an area where it’s pretty safe to say that people want the project done,” says Bill Fruhling, senior planner with the city’s neighborhood planning, preservation and design section. “It’s not one of those ones where, ‘We don’t want any development there.’ But it has to be the right project. It’s getting all the pieces to fit.”
McGrath Property Group’s five-floor mixed use project, to be called The East End, would include 153 apartments, 220 parking spaces and 11,000 square-feet of commercial space. Essen Haus and an adjacent building, 514 and 518 E. Wilson St., respectively, would be demolished. The Come Back Inn, 508 E. Wilson, would be retained and refurbished. Hotel Ruby Marie, 524 E. Wilson, on the corner with South Blair Street, is not part of the project.
The proposal goes to the city Landmarks Commission on June 24. Assuming approvals, it then goes to the Urban Design Commission and then the Plan Commission. Developer Lance McGrath hopes to break ground Oct. 1 and open up the building on April 1, 2021.
An earlier, larger East End design called for demolition of four houses on Blair. Even the downsized proposal leaves some uneasy.
“The density of that size and number of units is quite significant and a little overwhelming,” says longtime resident Bert Stitt, a past president of Capital Neighborhoods, Inc.
“It’s just too big of a project for the block. There’s broad agreement on that,” says Juli Wagner, who owns and lives on property adjacent to the site.
The location was identified for development in the city’s 2012 Downtown Plan. There have been several proposals over the years. “This one is certainly more compliant [with planning documents] than ones that have come in the past,” says Fruhling. “They started out in a pretty good place.”
Ald. Marsha Rummel, whose district includes the project, agrees. McGrath Property consulted with the neighborhood “even before they met with city staff, which is really rare,” she says.
“We have worked diligently with the neighborhood and have had a productive process,” says McGrath.
But lately, Rummel notes, “it’s been a little bit bumpier.”
That’s because, besides desirable lake views, the site has a peculiar distinction: the block includes parts of one national and two local historic districts. “And that makes it more historic and hysteric than you can imagine,” Stitt wryly notes.
The East Wilson Street historic district is state and federal, only. Its status affords tax credits for renovation but no protection. The McGrath proposal falls in that district and that of First Settlement. Hotel Ruby Marie is in Madison’s Third Lake Ridge historic district, and is therefore unrelated.
But all are players. “Of the parties that are reaching out to me saying that they have concerns, there are Mansion Hill folks, First Settlement Folks, and it sounds like at least some people in Third Lake Ridge are concerned,” says Heather Bailey, the city’s preservation planner.
Says McGrath, “We are always willing to meet and work with the neighborhood to address their concerns to the extent that we can.”
Mansion Hill residents have drafted a letter alleging the current design compromises the integrity of First Settlement. Their concerns include fear of precedent, “pav[ing] the way for the desecration of our other historic districts.”
But the big concerns are size and traffic, especially on Franklin Street. McGrath counters that “all parking is accessed from South Blair and exits on South Blair.”
The size of the proposed development could present the biggest issue for landmarks approval. “When a plan is finalized that would involve consolidation of a number of lots, there are standards for that involving a historic district,” says Bailey. “The biggest hurdles I think are on that front.”
Those standards are in the landmarks ordinance to ensure development in keeping with the character of a historic district; the “rhythm” or feeling of a street, for example. This can relate to height and mass, types of material, treatment of facades and even placement of windows and doors. First Settlement has detailed standards.
In theory, “You could potentially create a structure that meets all of the historic district standards, but because the lot is so large and you fill up that volume — you end up with something larger in scale than you would typically see historically,” says Bailey.
“We believe that our design is very compatible with — and does not adversely impact — the district or any landmark in it,” says McGrath. “Our architectural team used that as a basis of their design, and took a lot of steps to make sure that it was designed to be compatible with the district.”