Madison’s Common Council has approved a major downtown development project. A special meeting on the Judge Doyle Square project began at 6:30 Tuesday night and lasted until 3:15 Wednesday morning. The vote was 12 to 6 in favor of the project.
The project is made up of 4 components: an office tower for Exact Sciences, a parking structure, a hotel, and a second office tower. If all of these phases are constructed as proposed right now, it will cost $200 million. Of that price, $46 million will come from taxpayers.
Dozens of people turned out for the special meeting. A number of them signed up to voice their opinions. “We think this is the wrong place for the building,” said Thomas Link, a concerned citizen of Madison. He continued, “This will create way too much congestion. They should do it out on East Washington where they have a lot of under developed land.”
Others like Antoine McNeail think the downtown is the perfect place for a development like this. “It’s always good for anyone to have a home base – so location, location.” McNeail said. “The heart of downtown is basically the heart of Madison. SO with that being said, being able to bring jobs and diverse employees.”
Developers continued to reassure those in attendance that there are a number of checks and balances to make sure money is not being lost. That includes a property tax guarantee of $20.8 million and and a job guarantee from Exact Sciences totaling $12 million.
WIBA