A prime Downtown property may soon be available for redevelopment as a state agency prepares to relocate from its offices near Monona Terrace with spectacular views of Lake Monona.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, or SWIB, is moving from its two-story office building at 121 E. Wilson St. for larger, new facilities at the massive Madison Yards redevelopment on the city’s West Side.
“SWIB has outgrown its Downtown office building, which the Wisconsin Retirement System purchased more than 17 years ago and portions of which are more than 75 years old,” spokeswoman Vicki Hearing said.
The property, called Lake Terrace, is nestled between the 10-story State of Wisconsin Administration Building, 101 E. Wilson St., and the metallic, 12-story Marina condominiums, 137 E. Wilson St. The Downtown Plan recommends a variety of uses and a maximum height up to the Capitol View Height Limit, which could be more than 10 stories but no higher than the base of the Capitol dome.
“It is prime to the nth degree Downtown real estate,” said Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th District, who represents the site and said he has already spoken with several high-profile Downtown developers interested in commercial, residential and mixed-use projects. “It’s a location that can’t be beat near subterranean public parking, Monona Terrace and Downtown amenities. The possibilities are endless.”
The site is near the Judge Doyle Square project that will include a hotel, housing, commercial space and an already opened, 560-space underground public parking garage.
While excited about potential redevelopment, Verveer said he’s disappointed the city is losing a major Downtown employer. “Whenever that occurs, it’s most unfortunate, be it a public or private employer,” he said.
Lake Terrace, built into the bluff along John Nolan Drive beginning in 1942 with additions in 1957 and 1972, offers 73,363 square feet of space, including 65,000 square feet of rentable office space, with two floors above ground and three floors in the hillside, including two lower level floors with partial exposures that face John Nolen and Lake Monona, and two levels of underground parking with 100 spaces on the 1.1-acre site. The property is assessed at $7.3 million, including $4.4 million for the land and $2.9 million for the building.
The property, however, will offer challenges for developers, including the asking price, a site with a lot of frontage but not much depth, limitations and conditions of the existing structure, the potential for parking, and the availability of financing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A growing agency
SWIB, which manages more than $125 billion in assets, including the Wisconsin Retirement System, is an independent state agency not funded through the state budget.
“In the last five years, SWIB has grown from 159 employees to 236 employees and anticipates additional growth in the next five years,” Hearing said. “The assets that we manage have grown significantly as well, from $84 billion in 2010 to about $129 billion in 2020, more than 90% of which is the WRS trust funds.”
The agency plans to lease 90,000 square feet of office space in a new building located at Madison Yards, officials said.
“The increase in employee headcount corresponds with an ongoing strategy to manage more assets internally, which in turn results in cost savings for the WRS because SWIB can manage assets in house for substantially less than external Wall Street investment managers,” Hearing said.
“Further, like the rest of the investment industry, SWIB is evolving to support the complexity of managing assets in a more challenging market environment,” she said. “Moving to a new space, with the modern efficiencies of a new construction, will allow SWIB to provide more robust and scalable technology needed to support internal management.”
The Hill Farms State Office Building, part of the Madison Yards development, opened in 2018 and houses staff from seven agencies including the Department of Employee Trust Funds, which administers WRS benefits, officials said.
SWIB will be in the office building portion of Madison Yards on a 3.17 acre parcel on the northwest corner of Segoe Road and Sheboygan Avenue, said Sean Roberts, vice president for Development at Summit Smith Development, which is partnering with Gilbane Development Co. on the redevelopment.
The agency will occupy the fourth through seventh floors of a seven-story, 160,000-square-foot structure, Roberts said. The partners have already received city approval for three blocks at Madison Yards, and formally submitted a land use application on Wednesday for the block that would include the office building to be occupied by SWIB, he said.
SWIB expects to occupy its new space at Madison Yards in late summer 2022.
An investment asset
Lake Terrace is held as an investment asset, and the sales process will be managed as it would for any other asset in SWIB’s real estate portfolio, Hearing said. CBRE, a commercial real estate services firm, has recently been engaged to assist with the marketing process with the specifics and timeline yet to be determined, she said.
The site to be vacated is currently zoned for Urban Mixed Use, which allows for a wide variety of uses, including residential, commercial, employment, hospitality, or a mix of those, city Planning Division director Heather Stouder said.
“A really outstanding design is required for this very visible location,” Verveer said.
Already, some neighbors, particularly at the Marina condominiums next to the site, have voiced concerns about a new structure impacting viewscapes, he said. “There will be very interested neighbors who will want to be involved early on,” he said.
Madison restaurants that said goodbye in 2020
Dragon I

The Asian-fusion restaurant Dragon I closed due to the competitive restaurant climate on State Street, its owner said.
Aichan "Wendy" Weng said it was a hard decision since Dragon I served the State Street community for many years. "There was a wall we couldn't get over," she said through her friend, Danna Viehl, who translated for her.
HungryBadger Cafe

They struggled for months, Shrestha said, largely because of the restaurant’s hidden second-floor location. But dealing with the extra weight of the virus forced his hand, and he negotiated a way out of his lease.
La Nopalera

La Nopalera gave no hint of its past as a Subway sub shop. It was a rare find: A restaurant that sold fresh-squeezed juice at a reasonable price and made exceptional sandwiches, too.
Pizza Brutta in Middleton

When Derek and Darcy Lee signed the lease for their pizzeria at 6712 Frank Lloyd Wright Ave., in Middleton, the floor was still dirt. The original Monroe Street location remains open and has online ordering.
The Tin Fox

“Being the first type of business that was forced to close and having the stay-at-home order extended through May” was devastating for The Tin Fox, said co-owner Greg Neal.
Not being able to sell the taps and cocktails that were “the cornerstone” of his business was also a factor, he said.
Common Ground

The owner of a Middleton restaurant, coffee shop and community space said the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences took her “out by the knees,” but admitted the business was struggling before the pandemic hit.
Before opening Common Ground in late 2018, Adrienne Hulburt-Stroud was a stay-at-home mom, a role she resumed when she closed her business in March due to the virus.
“It was just strange, going from working and busy, busy, busy, running around, and then boom, a complete regression to a couple of years ago,” she said Tuesday, after she informed her Facebook community about her decision to close Common Ground.
Hulburt-Stroud said the hiatus gave her time to step back and contemplate the future of Common Ground. “It is with an unbelievably heavy heart that we will likely not be moving forward in our current state at the corner of Branch & Century Avenue,” she wrote.
Captain Bill's

Owners of the longtime Captain Bill’s seafood restaurant in Middleton announced in June that it wouldn’t reopen after a COVID-19 shutdown.
“Due to the coronavirus and the uncertainty of what the future holds, the hard decision has been made to consolidate our businesses to the town of Westport and not to reopen Captain Bill’s,” the owners said on Facebook.
“We thank you for your patronage over the past 27 years and we look forward to serving you at Mariner’s, Nau-Ti-Gal, or on a Betty Lou Cruise.”
Captain Bill’s, 2701 Century Harbor Road, overlooking Lake Mendota, had a supper club atmosphere and was in a group of restaurants owned by the von Rutenberg family.
Manna Cafe & Bakery

Manna Cafe & Bakery closed after 15 years, and in a letter to customers, the owners wrote: “Please understand — this is the hardest moment of our lives. It is the most difficult thing we have ever done, or imagined we would do.”
Barb and Mike Pratzel closed Manna for about a week at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and then began offering takeout.
On May 26, the day local restaurants were allowed to open at a reduced capacity, Mike Pratzel said he and Barb were meeting with their managers the next day to discuss how to proceed. “I don’t think anybody around here is in a hurry to open it up,” he said then. “It’s a lot of effort to change things up for a limited amount of space.”
Doolittle's Woodfire Grill

"We ultimately closed because of COVID-19, I suppose, but it's a little more three dimensional than that," said John Sheehan.
Helbachs Coffee Roasters

Helbachs Coffee Roasters and Kitchen lost its lease in Middleton and closed in late August.
The closure came on the heels of “enforcement action, negative public statements and continued vindictive and hostile behavior” toward the shop from Public Health Madison and Dane County, the business' owners said in an Instagram post.
Public Health Madison and Dane County issued the coffee shop three citations for violating the county’s public health order, including not complying with the requirement to wear face coverings indoors.
Fazoli's

Fazoli's fast food Italian restaurant at 2143 Zeier Road on Madison's Far East Side closed this year.
Good Food Low Carb Cafe

Citing COVID-19 and vandalism to their property, the owners of the two popular Good Food carts and a cafe on Madison's East Side closed all three entities in July.
"Thanks for a great ten years of food carting and three years at the Low Carb Cafe, Madison," they wrote in a Facebook post.
"Between covid, pretty extensive vandalism to our property yesterday, the everyday never-ending struggles of restaurant ownership, murder hornets and meth gators, this year has just been too much for us," they wrote this summer.
Potbelly on University Avenue

The Potbelly Sandwich Shop on University Avenue has closed while the location at East Towne Mall remains open. The State Street location reopened in August after shutting down for a few months. The West Towne location is listed as temporarily closed.
HopCat

BarFly Ventures of Grand Rapids, Michigan, HopCat's parent company, owns 11 restaurants, nine of them HopCats, said Ellen Winterburn, the company's vice president of human resources.
In early June, BarFly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Such a filing allows a company to continue operating and develop a plan to repay its creditors.
Pho King Good

"Pho King Good was no good," said owner Ting Cai Zhou with a laugh, adding that the restaurant closed "because of coronavirus."
Freddy Valentine's

"It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that Freddy’s will close permanently... We wanted to be open another 5 years, but COVID-19 had another plan," wrote Dave Owen, who owned the business with his wife, Jeaneane.
The Owens opened the restaurant in August 2012 in what was The Bank Restaurant & Wine Bar, 134 W. Jefferson St., in a neo-classical building, built in 1915.
Boston's Restaurant & Sports Bar

Boston's Restaurant & Sports Bar closed in September after one year at 1370 Water Wheel Drive in Waunakee. A Buck & Honey's recently opened in its place.
Charlie's on Main

"We have loved every minute of it!" he wrote in a Facebook post that he warned would be "happy, sad, emotional, frustrated and long."
Heide, who also owns the New Orleans, Cajun-inspired Liliana's Restaurant in Fitchburg, said that when restaurants were forced to close in mid-March due to COVID-19, he promised to keep his dining rooms closed no matter the financial burden, to keep customers and staff safe, "until the rates of infection had dropped consistently for two weeks straight."
In six months, he said, that target hadn't been hit once. In fact, he wrote, "it is still spiking and hitting new highs almost every day."
Rockhound Brewing Co.

Rockhound Brewing Company on Park Street closed in November, a move its owner said was “inevitable.”
“I figured I’d do it my way,” Nate Warnke said then, adding that he wanted to “close down gracefully, carefully, as opposed to just running out of money all of a sudden.”
Warnke said he'd been operating at the county-mandated 25% capacity to limit the spread of COVID-19, but only filled the space to that level three or four times. “I’ve noticed that people are skittish about sitting inside. It seems a great deal of Madison is, and I don’t blame them. I’m totally understanding of that.”
Plaka Taverna

Telly and Beth Fatsis sold the building to someone who is planning to open a Chinese restaurant in its place.
Beth said Plaka hadn’t opened its dining room under COVID-19 restrictions, and because it’s so small, they would’ve only been able to use two tables.
Sunroom Cafe

That was also the number of years he had left on his lease at the sunny, second-floor restaurant at 638 State St., which routinely had customers lined up down the stairs waiting on weekends.
Paradise just marked his 25th year of ownership, and in October said his decision was also based on the uncertainties of the pandemic and the unknowns about being able to reopen safely. He said he also worried about retaining skilled employees in a limited work capacity. “I guess there were too many variables,” he said.
Angelo's in Monona

“We have an older clientele and so a lot of them have been being safe and staying home,” he said.
At first, when dining rooms were closed by county order in March, McGuigan said Angelo’s did well with carryout, but that “trickled off” as the months wore on.
Pizza Di Roma

The Pizza Di Roma location on State Street closed after being damaged and looted during protests in late May and early June. Pizza Di Roma's West Side location is temporarily closed.
El Poblano

El Poblano on Milwaukee Street closed in March because of COVID-19 and due to construction of a new Woodman's gas station, its owner said. A location in Marshall is closed temporarily, but the closure may become permanent.
Original Pancake House Monona

The Original Pancake House, 518 River Place, in Monona, has closed, according to an employee at the Original Pancake House on Madison's Far West Side.
Martin O'Grady's Irish Pub

Martin O'Grady's Irish Pub ended a 20-year-run on Mineral Point Road on Dec. 19.
"It is with a heavy heart we bring the news that after 20 fun-filled years Martin O'Grady's Irish Pub will be calling last call one final time," its owners said in a Facebook post, adding that they were proud to be one of the last locally-owned pubs "standing in the land of chains" on Madison's West Side.
"Like so many others, we have felt the effects of the pandemic," the owners wrote. "We sincerely hope the tight restrictions placed on bars and restaurants in Dane Co. prove to be worth it."
Dok's Klassik Tavern

Dok's Klassik Tavern, 410 W. Verona Ave., in Verona, had its final day of service December 20. In a Facebook post, the owners wrote, "We would like to THANK our many dedicated employees, specifically Gary and Barb, for their hard work and loyalty over the years. There are not enough words to convey our appreciation for the devoted patrons we have had the pleasure to serve. We have had some amazing nights, made forever friends and shared countless laughs the last decade or so at The Klassik. We wish that we could do it all for another ten years. But, the good fight to keep the business successful and rewarding is nearly impossible given the restrictions in Dane County. We hope that you stay safe through these times ... and always remember... He's not a real doktor, but he'll take a look at it!"
Papino's in Windsor

In May, Joe Pipitone closed his 8-year old restaurant, Papino's, in Windsor. He said business wasn't great, and then COVID-19 made it worse. He's been back working at his parents' restaurant, Cafe La Bellitalia, on Madison's North Side.