Before Tuesday night’s Common Council meeting to decide the fate of the $200 million Judge Doyle Square project, many council watchers predicted the project would fail by a slim margin.
The project calls for $67 million in city investment, including $46.7 million in subsidies to the development team led by Bob Dunn of Hammes Co. The project would bring the biotech firm Exact Sciences’ headquarters downtown and build 1,250 parking spaces and a new hotel to complement Monona Terrace.
Some have criticized the deal due to the high subsidy, lack of financial guarantees and absence of a requirement to build a hotel. Critics have also taken aim at the design and proposed management of the parking structure, as well as the numerous violations of the city’s tax incremental financing policy.
But early Wednesday morning, Mayor Paul Soglin took to the floor and waved those concerns aside. It was a Paul Soglin that the council is not used to seeing. Instead of berating and lecturing, he appealed to a vision of downtown and the city.
“There are cities out there dying for an opportunity like this. This is why we made investments in downtown, why we did Monona Terrace, why we’re committed to a bus system,” Soglin told them. “Where do you find a company coming downtown adding 200 jobs? Oh excuse me, 400 jobs, but most likely 700 or 900 jobs.”
Shortly after the speech, Ald. Larry Palm noted: “This is some of the mayor’s best work. He’s far better when he’s conciliatory.”
The speech wasn’t enough to convince Palm to support the deal. But 12 council members — including several who were assumed to be solid “no” votes — voted in favor, with six against. Two of the 20 alders were absent.
Ald. Sara Eskrich came into the meeting expecting to vote no, but was won over. “The mayor obviously speaks eloquently to this issue, but many of my colleagues do as well,” she said. “If we don’t diversify our tax base, we limit ourselves.”
Ald. Denise DeMarb also said she’d been swayed by the debate. She acknowledged that there are risks with the project, but said “The possibility of this is a lot of good jobs downtown and a lot of good things go with that.”
Exact Sciences is slated to get a $12 million jobs TIF loan in the deal, but there has been confusion about how it will be used. Joe Gromacki, the city’s TIF coordinator, wrote that the loan is really a grant, because there’s no way it can be paid back using traditional TIF schemes. He has questioned whether it is being used for operating expenses, which violates state law.
Several Exact Sciences employees — all people of color — spoke during the public comment, urging approval. Kevin Conroy, Exact Sciences president and CEO, also noted that his company has made diversity a priority and has greater minority representation than the city as a whole.
Ald. Samba Baldeh, a black immigrant from Gambia, found arguments about this distasteful.
“We pay lip service to minorities just to give $46 million to this corporation,” said Baldeh, who voted against the project. “Let us not be moved by saying Exact Sciences is going to bring in minorities. They have been doing that and will continue doing that, but why will we give $46 million to a corporation?”
Other council members tried to dissuade their colleagues from voting on emotional arguments. Ald. Rebecca Kemble said she came in with her mind made up based on the proposal at hand.
“We’re voting not on how people love their jobs, but we’re voting on this contract, and this is what we really have to count on,” she said, holding the agreement up. “For me it comes down to the risk is way out of proportion to the vague rewards we will get out of it.”
Ald. David Ahrens, who led the campaign against the project, noted that the policy violates numerous city policies.
“I thought people were won over by personal stories and a vision of the big, shiny office building filled with highly paid biotech workers who are people of color,” he said after the meeting. “[The project] is a mishmash of whatever people’s fantasies or desires are.”
While Wednesday’s approval was a major hurdle for the project, some others remain. Funding for it will have to be approved in the 2016 capital budget. And the TIF Joint Review Board — made up of representatives of the taxing bodies, the city, Dane County, Madison College, Madison Schools and a citizen representative, will have to approve it.
The developers hope to break ground this year and complete the Exact Sciences building by summer 2017.