City of Madison celebrates completion of key project on former Judge Doyle Square site
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City of Madison officials joined representatives from Mortensen Development, Raymond Management Company, and others at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to celebrate the opening of the new Embassy Suites hotel on Doty Street.
The completion of the 262-unit hotel marks a key milestone in the redevelopment of the former Judge Doyle Square site, more than a decade after the first master plans for the area were developed.
Now, hundreds of hotel rooms will be added within walking distance of Monona Terrace, increasing the City’s ability to host major conferences and events downtown.
History of the Judge Doyle Square Redevelopment
Judge Doyle Square is a two-block area in downtown Madison with E. Doty Street to the north, E. Wilson Street to the south, Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the west, and split by S. Pickney Street. It is comprised of Block 88 – home to the Madison Municipal Building, which used to be a federal courthouse where U.S. District Court Judge James E. Doyle spent much of his career – and Block 105, which was home to the 520-space Government East parking garage.
In July 2012, the City of Madison’s Common Council adopted a new Downtown Plan to provide a development roadmap for the area for the next 20 years. That plan included a recommendation to redevelop Judge Doyle Square to incorporate public parking, ground-floor retail, and private development. The first development agreement for the space was signed in July 2016, and construction on the first component of the Judge Doyle Square redevelopment, a new public parking garage on Block 88 (now called the Wilson Street garage), began in October 2017.
Legal disputes with the City’s original partner delayed the private development for the space above the Wilson Street garage, but through a new partnership in July 2020, Stone House Development was approved for more than 160 units on top of the Wilson Street garage and retail space at the corner of E. Doty and S. Pickney Streets. The NoVo apartment complex was completed in August 2021.
The opening of the Wilson Street garage in June 2020 allowed the demolition of the Government East parking garage, which began in July 2020 and finished in February 2021, completing the public portion of the project. Mortenson began construction on the Embassy Suites hotel in April 2022.
With the opening of the Embassy Suites hotel in June 2024, one empty lot at Judge Doyle Square remains. Plans for the final lot have not yet been finalized, but it is currently being used as a construction staging site for other projects nearby.
More background information on the history of the site and the redevelopment efforts can be found on the City of Madison’s website.
