A local developer who wants to tear down University Square Mall presented his plans before a city committee for the first time Tuesday.
Greg Rice, president of Executive Management Inc., the proposal's developer, hopes to begin building a new $120 million complex of shopping, parking and housing by January 2003.
The new complex would be bordered by University Avenue, Johnson Street, Lake Street and Murray Mall and incorporate a surface parking lot owned by UW-Madison.
'It's a much better land use and the drawings for the proposed buildings look just beautiful,' said Ald. Dorothy Borchardt, District 12, a member of the Madison Pedestrian, Bike and Motor Vehicle Committee, which heard Rice's presentation.
The shopping area will be located mainly on the first floor because of the difficulty of drawing people onto a second floor.
'The scope of the project is roughly 64,000 retail feet with a possibility of 70 to 1,000 on the second floor,' Rice said.
The project would have the first floor as retail, with two residential towers of approximately 10 to 11 stories and 12 stories of offices. The housing would consist mostly of studios and one- to two-bedroom apartments geared toward students.
'The residential towers would hold 500 to 600 people and the University of Wisconsin has expressed interest in using them for student housing purposes,' Rice said.
Committee members raised the question of how the project would contribute to the already heavy east-west traffic on Johnson Street and University Avenue. In order to address those issues, Executive Management plans to perform a traffic- and pedestrian-pattern study late this year.
'After the studies are finished the committee will have a meeting to discuss the traffic patterns. But I think everyone will be very happy,' Borchardt said.
The committee also raised concerns about construction restricting the flow of traffic on Johnson Street and University Avenue.
'We may have to close down a lane on each of the four bordering streets during the construction, but we are planning on working mainly from Murray Mall,' Rice said.
The plans for the elevated structure also include two levels of underground parking with 600 to 700 spots available.
'Whether or not any of this parking will be made available to the residents of the new complex has yet to be determined,' Rice said.
