City of Madison Celebrates Exciting Groundbreaking Season in Affordable Housing

Madison is building more and more affordable rental housing across our city. I have been honored to be part of three city supported groundbreakings just in the last three months. These housing developments exemplify my Housing Forward vision to meet Madison’s housing challenges by creating affordable housing with City financial assistance.

Bayview Townhomes hosted a groundbreaking celebration in August for its monumental redevelopment at the corner of West Washington and Regent Streets. Built in 1971, the existing community is comprised of 102 two and three bedroom townhouse units. The 50 year old units are beyond their useful life, while the 70’s era site layout leaves much to be desired. After conducting an extensive resident input process, Bayview will reconstruct 130 units of new housing with 73 apartments and 57 townhouses in 10 buildings comprised of 1, 2, and 3 bedroom units. The housing will be situated around a central green space courtyard and new state of the art community center all with a significant focus on sustainability. The construction and demolition will be phased over the course of three years to ensure all residents have the ability to remain on site as the community is renewed in the residents’ vision. Learn more about this work here: Bayview Rising.

Movin’ Out’, Inc. celebrated, not one, but two groundbreakings in October: Red Caboose Apartments and Fourteen02 Park Street. The first of its kind, Red Caboose Apartments will be a mixed-use, affordable rental development at Union Corners featuring a childcare center on the first floor. Red Caboose, Madison’s oldest independent, non-profit childcare center, teamed up with Movin’ Out, Inc. to expand its space to 21,000 square feet allowing it to triple the number of children it currently serves at its Williamson Street location. Meanwhile, Movin’ Out’s 38-unit affordable 1, 2, and 3 bedroom units will sit atop the upper three floors. You can visit Red Caboose’s website to learn more about their work.

After the Pick N’ Save on South Park Street announced its imminent closure, the City issued two Requests for Proposals to ensure there would not be a grocery gap on Madison’s south side by redeveloping the neighboring vacant Truman Olson Army Recruitment site. The City selected Rule Enterprises LLC, led by Brandon Rule, an emerging black developer from Milwaukee, to develop the site. Rule proceeded to partner with non-profit Movin’ Out, Inc. to co-develop Fourteen02 Park Street, the largest City-funded affordable housing development to date. This mixed-use development will feature a 24,000 square foot grocery store on the first floor and 150 units of affordable rental housing with a mix of 1, 2, and 3 bedroom units.

The City of Madison invested approximately $5.3 million in city and federal financial assistance for these three developments to support the creation of over 300 units of affordable rental housing by leveraging federal and state Low Income Housing Tax Credits administered by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority. In 2021, the City invested nearly $6-million in affordable housing development, which is expected to leverage approximately $45-million in federal, state and private funds. I look very much forward to celebrating the grand openings of these developments next year, and breaking ground on many more projects that will create housing for our community.