Vowing to make Madison Area Technical College more accessible to the city’s diverse and underserved population, Jack E. Daniels III, the college’s president, is proposing leasing the school’s downtown property and eventually building a south side campus, according to a report in the Wisconsin State Journal.
Last year, the MATC District Board deadlocked on Daniels’ earlier proposal to sell the downtown location.
The new idea proposes a 50-year ground lease of the former Madison Central High School site that would allow a developer to renovate or raze the existing structure, which is in need of renovation. MATC would retain ownership and could collect between $500,000 and $900,000 in annual revenue. A vote is planned for May 4.
Moving the school and its various programs would occur in phases, with the college first utilizing and expanding space it owns at Village on Park Mall on South Park Street and relocating some programs to other existing MATC locations around town. Eventually, a new south side site would be chosen.
The downtown location would likely remain open at least through the end of the 2017–2018 school year.
