The west side University Hill Farms neighborhood has been a buzzing beehive of private development over the past several years, with the area adding new residential units and a new Target while embarking on a highly anticipated Hilldale Shopping Center renovation that will add an upscale, open-air flair to the popular mall.
But just a stone’s throw away from these new projects lies a five-decade-old state Department of Transportation building that could charitably be described as utilitarian. It sits on a site that the state has been hoping to redevelop since at least the mid-2000s, and now that site has taken another major step toward its long-overdue facelift.
After issuing a request for proposals for the Hill Farms redevelopment project in October, the state has zeroed in on a development team for the site, which will be anchored by a new 600,000-square-foot building that will become the state’s largest office facility at the time of completion. The team is led by Gilbane Inc., a Providence, R.I., firm with offices in Milwaukee, and is rounded out by Fond du Lac’s C.D. Smith, Minneapolis’ GHA, and Smith Group JJR of Detroit. The total price tag for the project is expected to be as high as $196 million.
In a letter sent to Gilbane on Feb. 2, Division of Facilities Management Administrator Cindy Torstveit announced the Department of Administration’s intent to negotiate a contract with the development team for the new office building as well as a new parking structure and surface lots.
In an email to IB, Department of Administration communication liaison Cullen Werwie gave no specific timeline for completion of the project but noted that its total cost and other details need to be ironed out before the final contract can be completed.
“Given the complexity of the project, we anticipate taking a few months on these negotiations,” stated Werwie.
In the State of Wisconsin’s 2013-15 capital budget recommendations, the state noted that the current building’s systems are inefficient and that they would all need to be modernized to meet current code requirements. The state also estimated that a complete renovation of the facility would have cost approximately $142 million and that without renovation or replacement of the building, $34 million in backlog maintenance would have accumulated.
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In November, following its first round of evaluations, the state narrowed its selection to four development teams, including the Gilbane team. Other developers under consideration at the time were teams consisting of the following companies: McCaffery Interests/Antunovich Assoc./Plunkett Raysich Architects/Vandewalle & Assoc./Ken Saiki Design/CG Schmidt/W.E. O’Neil Construction Co.; Mortenson/Wangard/EUA; T. Wall Enterprises LLC/Potter Lawson Architects/Miron Construction Co. Inc.
Other details of the project, according to the original request for proposals, include the following:
- When completed, the building’s tenants will include the Department of Transportation, the Department of Employee Trust Funds, the Public Service Commission, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, the Department of Financial Institutions, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., and the Department of Administration.
- The standalone parking structure and surface lot will include approximately 2,500 spaces.
- The state plans to reduce the overall construction costs by selling the remaining underutilized property that will be vacated at the Hill Farms site. It will also sell the Badger Road State Office Building, which currently houses the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds. According to the RFP, the Department of Employee Trust Funds has outgrown the Badger Road building.
While the state’s letter of intent is certainly a step forward in getting the project underway, Torstveit noted that the awarding of a contract still depends on the results of further negotiations.
“If a contractual agreement cannot be reached during negotiations, the DOA reserves the right to end negotiations and move on to the next highest scoring proposer,” she wrote.
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