Green Exchange Developer Tapped to Chart Path for Madison Sustainability Commerce Center
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MADISON, Wis. (February 10, 2014) The City of Madison selected Baum Development, LLC to further explore the development of the Madison Sustainability Commerce Center (MSCC). The vision for MSCC is to be a showcase building featuring green technologies, as well as a convergence point for the green and innovation community to share best practices, network, and provide an active space that fosters tenant success.
Baum Development will manage the feasibility study for MSCC, gaining greater insight into specific types of tenants that would take interest in the new development, as well as different designs and technologies that can be utilized throughout the building. The City’s Capitol East District is being considered as a location for the project, although a specific site has not yet been finalized.
"We are eager to break ground on this innovative project," said Mayor Paul Soglin. "At this point we are looking for collaborators and tenants to help shape this important effort."
Baum Development is best known for their work on The Green Exchange in Chicago. The Green Exchange is a 272,000-square-foot historic landmark building that was completely renovated and features a 41,000-gallon rainwater collection system, an 8,000-square-foot organic garden and has helped create over 1,200 jobs. The Green Exchange was awarded the 2013 Outstanding For-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project Award from the City of Chicago. MSCC will apply all the success of The Green Exchange with the opportunities for further development and expansion.
"Being able to connect the links through a project like Green Exchange is one of the many reasons we were very attracted to Madison and Wisconsin," says David Baum, President of Baum Development.
The appeal to locate in a sustainable building that fosters collaboration is proving attractive to all types of companies. "Many of these companies share a similar vision for helping solve local and global challenges related to social and environmental issues," says Bryant Moroder, principal of Sustainable Resource Group and a member of the team.
MSCC is a proactive step toward establishing a platform to increase the region’s clean tech competiveness by fostering cooperation between two of the major cities along the Interstate 90/94 "I-Q Corridor." The opportunity provided by these two projects to simultaneously have a presence and access to workspace in both Chicago and Madison markets and the sharing of amenities and business services can be very attractive for companies looking to grow in either market.
The project team also includes McKinstry, a Seattle based provider of world-class design and build services for high-performance buildings. McKinstry, which has an office in Madison, has constructed and operates three innovation centers in the Pacific Northwest, which cluster emerging technology companies including several clean tech firms.
Funding for the effort comes from a $300,000 grant received by the City through the Capital Region Sustainable Communities (CRSC) initiative of the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (CARPC). CRSC is funded by the Sustainable Communities Regional Planning (SCRP) Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This contract will utilize approximately $75,000 of this grant. Over the next several months, the team will further its plans and present its findings to the City of Madison.
