Since the dawn of the recession, when the commercial construction and development industry was waylaid more than most, industry executives have been talking about gradual improvement.
Three years into a slow economic recovery, they still are.
While IB’s 2012 Commercial Design Awards indicate that quality projects are still popping up, especially ones connected with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the pace of construction activity still is not at its pre-recessionary levels, but there are signs that it’s not backtracking, either.
Aris Gialamas, vice president of Gialamas Co., acknowledged some fear during the past couple of years, making companies reluctant to expand their facilities, but that fear seems to be subsiding. “I think we’re starting to see a turn-around,” he said. “There seems to more traction to Wisconsin as a whole, with more people starting to grow their businesses, and there seems to be more investment as well.”
Executives attending IB’s recent Roundtable on Commercial Development not only offered their opinions on the state of the industry, they also continued to press their case for a more streamlined, properly sequenced approval process in the city of Madison, especially in its entrance corridors.
In addition to Gialamas, panelists included: Paul Cuta, a partner in the Engberg Anderson architectural firm; Lawrence Barton, president of Strang Inc.; and Brett Frazier, executive director of the Oregon Area Chamber of Commerce.
Wish list
In terms of driving development, Cuta said the city should protect its urban core, which means more progress on redeveloping the Capital East Corridor along East Washington Avenue.
Cuta noted that East Washington is the gateway to the downtown, the first area of town that visitors see as they travel from Dane County Regional Airport to the Capitol or UW-Madison. He envisions the old industrial area being transformed into a place where more biotech and technology firms are incubated, a process that is tepidly underway.
“Researchers, educators, and businesspeople fly in and that’s what they see,” Cuta noted.
(The Madison Plan Commission has voted to accept Urban Land Interests’ $32 million, 160,000-sq.-ft., mixed-use (office, housing, and parking) proposal for the 800 block of East Washington Avenue. The recommendation to sell the land to ULI now heads to the Madison Common Council.)
Barton agreed that more progress must be made in developing the city’s “gateway corridors,” including John Nolen Drive, Highway 14, and Research Park II. He said that when fully built out, the second research park property would bring over 200 companies to the area, connecting UW discoveries to the commercial world through technology transfer.
Frazier said Greater Madison must do a better job “telling its story,” retaining the talent it develops in local educational institutions, and be more aggressive in terms of economic development.
Panelists offered qualified praise for Dane County Executive Joe Parisi’s plans to hire someone for the newly created position of economic development coordinator. Gialamas said he has no idea whether the individual who occupies the position, who should be named in the near future, will help developers cut through development barriers.
Frazier, noting that some communities are more aggressive than others, said local communities should “not wait for this person to make things happen.”
After talking to local economic development representatives, Barton anticipates the individual will serve as more of a resource, including as a touch point for securing revolving loans and grants.
Cuta isn’t sure what to expect, but he expressed support for someone who is a champion for all local communities. “My hope is this person takes a leadership role in collaboration on the county’s part,” he said.
Neighborhood input
Panelists also commented on the influence of neighborhood associations in city of Madison projects. One of the oft-stated criticisms of the city’s process for considering new developments is that neighborhood associations wield too much influence in shaping developments.
City officials who support the existing process believe it has resulted in higher- quality developments, but opponents contend it has suppressed development by creating a gauntlet of tests that not only increase the cost of developing in Madison, but also drive projects to Madison’s suburban ring.
“Without a doubt, the efficiency of getting things done is a major factor,” Gialamas stated.
He said the Gialamas Co.’s Sauk Trails Park “came close to not making it” on the far west side due to neighborhood concerns, some of which were unrealistic. According to Gialamas, some did not want office buildings taller than two stories, while another person actually said, “I don’t want my home to burn down. There is a lot of glass on those buildings.”
Others argued that a balance should be struck. Barton said the speed of the process is a problem that Madison is aware of, and argued for a fairly sequenced process with a time limit. “Developers would rather be told ‘no’ early on than to continue to invest more in it,” he noted.
However, Barton added that Madison’s process does produce quality projects, so there is value in getting the community involved. The challenge is that surrounding communities are getting more competitive, and that can result in a downgrade in quality.
“If we drift away from smart-growth concepts, that would be detrimental to the overall region,” Barton stated.
Cuta said having new projects choose surrounding communities doesn’t necessarily create new developments, it just moves development around the county. “The real challenge is attracting new businesses instead of playing a shell game,” he said. “It really comes down to recruitment and growing your own.”
Proportionate voices
One of the more recent attempts to change the city’s approval process occurred in 2011, when the city’s Economic Development Committee, including former economic development director Tim Cooley, crafted a process improvement initiative. It sought to reduce the time that’s necessary for more complex projects to move through the system, while recognizing that there is a certain standard and involvement that stakeholders deserve.
In addition, it called for having proposals move along in a parallel process instead of sequential process wherever possible, and to help maintain some semblance of uniformity and predictability.
At the time, Cooley said it defined proportionate voices within the development process and assigned a role to each one, including neighborhoods. The goal was to move things along in a more efficient manner, reduce development costs, and increase investment in the city.
“The neighborhood groups are an input into the process,” he explained in early 2011. “They are not the deciding factor in the process. Land-use authority, by state statute, has been given to the municipality.”
After Cooley’s contract was not renewed in early 2011, the Madison Common Council adopted a revised version of the process improvement initiative. Cooley, now with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., indicated the adopted version was a revised version of an earlier “dumbed down” version.
“I had already dumbed it down from what was originally proposed to get to a ‘yes,’ however incremental,” he wrote in an email.
While the city works on its process, suburban communities with more reasonable development pathways are reaping the benefits of growth.
Frazier said Oregon benefits from developers’ frustration with the Madison development process. He said that over the years, Oregon has been a bit of a bedroom community and is trying to increase daytime activity by developing its industrial park, which still has 25 to 30 available acres.
Oregon has already lured one longstanding Madison business, Thysse Printing Service, to the village in a process that took 31 days from initial conversation to plan approval. The village’s process was solidified by a community strategic planning process that included input from citizens about the type of businesses they did and did not want.
The resulting input indicated a preference for developments such as corporate headquarters, data centers, and light manufacturing that won’t significantly increase truck traffic on surface streets. The strategic plan helped village officials determine that Thysse was a good fit for the community without a drawn-out process. The company’s new facility will open on June 11.
“One of our key selling points is that we can expedite an approval process,” Frazier said. “When we believe in a project and the people involved in it, we can get something through our approval process in 30 to 45 days.”
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