City leaders and the developer of a 25-acre east side Madison property are brokering an unusual, tax-funded deal that would create over 1,000 new housing units on farmland, with 20% set aside for affordable housing, The Capital Times reports.
Madison has essentially agreed to designate the Milwaukee Street property as a special tax district and then purchase part of the site with increased taxes generated by its development. According to the agreement with developer Starkweather LLC — a partnership between Stone House Development and Threshold Development Group — paying for four of the property’s 13 planned lots would cost the city $4.1 million in future taxes.
The remaining nine lots on the site known as Voit Farms, which Starkweather acquired for over $8 million, could be sold to other buyers for market rate or affordable housing.
