While construction wraps up on the Hub apartment complex on State Street, members of the Hub’s development group presented plans for a second Hub complex to community members during a meeting Thursday night.
The meeting was organized by Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, and the development team to provide the community a voice on the new downtown construction project.
The new 12-story complex Hub II is replacing a parking lot on West Gilman Street and will provide approximately 300 new apartments for the downtown area, according to developers.
The developers expressed their hope to move away from higher-priced luxury apartments with Hub II.
“This is intended … to fit into the middle range of the market,” said Brian Munson, a representative from Vandewalle and Associates, Inc. and a member of the Hub II development team. “Think of other projects like Hub I and Lucky … as the upper end of the market. [We want to] diversify the market.”
However, business owners who attended the meeting worried about clogging downtown streets with another large construction project.
“Gilman Street hasn’t been available,” said Duane Hendrickson, who owns Gilman Plaza. “I’ve got three doctors and an attorney [at the plaza]. They haven’t been able to park on Gilman because construction equipment is there.”
Hub II is only the latest apartment project seeking approval in the downtown area. Just recently, an apartment project at 114 North Bedford St. was approved by the city’s Planning Commission.
The stream of new apartments could be a response to high demand for downtown housing and could foster competition between apartment developers, according to Verveer.
“The reason we’re seeing so many apartment buildings proposed in downtown Madison … is because the vacancy rates in downtown Madison are at absurdly low levels,” Verveer said. “Trying to find affordable housing in downtown Madison is extremely difficult. My hope is that, as these new apartments are built, rent will stabilize [or] decrease as competition becomes a reality.”
