Student Housing: Developer eyes student housing where UW building might stand
MIKE IVEY for The Capital Times
While the UW-Madison’s effort to condemn property owned by the Brothers Bar & Grill chain has grabbed plenty of attention, a prominent campus-area landlord is also bumping up against the university’s thirst for real estate.
For months, Otto Gebhardt has been seeking city approval for a new 87-unit, high-rise student apartment building at 1208 Spring St. Three aging rental houses on the property now would be torn down. Gebhardt and others have been quietly redeveloping other properties in the area between Randall Avenue and the Park Street viaduct. Some of the newer brick Colonial row houses on the narrow streets hint at Georgetown or Cambridge.
Despite some initial concerns about the height, the proposed Humbucker Apartments have faced little neighborhood opposition. The project features a mix of unit sizes from one to four bedrooms. Plans include 24 covered automobile parking spaces, 37 scooter spaces and one bicycle space per bedroom.
“It’s going to provide some badly needed new housing close to campus,” says Ald. Bryon Eagon, who represents the campus area.
The main snag is that the Humbucker would sit on a block the UW in 2005 targeted in its 20-year master plan for construction of a new academic building. The university already owns about two-thirds of the 1200 block of Spring Street.
The UW — which this week settled out of court the dispute over the Brothers property at 704 University Ave. — hasn’t opposed the Humbucker tower per se. But university officials noted early in the process that the apartment project was in conflict with its long-range development goals.
“As we have noted to Mr. Gebhardt in our prior meetings, housing development on this site would not be consistent with our long-range campus plan,” Gary Brown, UW facilities manager, told city of Madison planning department officials in an e-mail exchange shortly after the project was made public in December.
At the same time, Brown emphasized that any plans to acquire and develop university facilities on the site are “at minimum 15 years out into the future.”
“There are no immediate plans to acquire or develop these parcels and we would not object to the existing housing stock being redeveloped to meet current needs,” adds Brown in an interview.
With that assurance from the UW, Gebhardt has pressed on, saying the university’s long-range time frame is not a major concern.
Gebhardt, who declined to comment for this report, has stated previously that he realizes the UW could condemn his property at a later date and tear down the apartment building. But he says it’s a chance he’s willing to take. If approvals can be gained this spring, Gebhardt hopes to start construction this summer, with the Humbucker ready for occupancy by August 2011.
Gebhardt has been involved in real estate investment and business in Madison for more than 17 years. He owns and manages approximately 1,000 commercial and residential properties in the Madison market, including Colonial Management Inc.
Gebhardt also serves as a director of the Greenwoods State Bank of Lake Mills, along with local businessmen Rob Andringa and Tom Shipley, among others.
“The (UW’s) plan says 15 to 20 years is the minimum,” he told the Daily Reporter, a Milwaukee-based building trades publication. “It might not actually happen for 30 or 35 years.”
Still, the project’s conflict with the UW master plan has caught the attention of the attorney representing the La Crosse-based owners of the Brothers Bar & Grill.
Brothers has been embroiled in a dispute with the UW over plans to build a new School of Music building on the site. The UW exercised its power of condemnation to take the property in 2008 and pay the owners $2.1 million but the move drew a court challenge from Brothers, which snubbed the UW’s offer.
Attorney Mike Wittenwyler says the Gebhardt case is another example of how the UW’s long-range plans are affecting private business in the city.
“The UW somehow thinks it can just wave its magic wand and have everything in its master plan,” says Wittenwyler. “What they are basically doing is creating a ghetto zone where nobody is going to want to build anything inside the boundaries.”
The issue has also been raised by Madison architect Bruce Woods, who chairs the city Urban Design Commission, which last month delayed final approval of the Humbucker Apartments. The panel asked Gebhardt to provide more details on floor plans, roof treatments and the potential for the fading of colored concrete in the design.
Design issues aside, Woods says it would be unfortunate to approve any high-rise building only to see it torn down in a few decades. “I’d like to see things last more than 50 years,” he says. “My house is 150 years old.”
Woods also questions just how much real estate the UW needs, not to mention the tax implications when property is moved from the private to the public sector.
“You do sort of wonder,” he says. “For one thing, where is all that money going to come from?”
The UW’s Brown counters that the existence of a master plan actually provides a benefit for the city and the development community since it offers guidance on the UW’s long-range plans.
As a public university, the UW does enjoy the power of eminent domain, which allows it to take property while paying the owners fair market value. When the two parties can’t agree on a price, the issue is left to the courts as in the Brothers case.
The UW hasn’t exercised its land purchase rights very frequently since its last building boom in the 1960s that saw construction of the Humanities building, among other projects. But the well-publicized fight with the Brothers chain, which has 16 locations in 10 states, has sparked proposed legislation at the state level. Bills to increase oversight of the University of Wisconsin System’s use of eminent domain have been proposed in both the Senate and Assembly, although passage appears unlikely.
