Middleton-based NCG Hospitality said plans have halted to redevelop the former Madison College site at 33 W. Johnson St., according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The historic structure was set to be converted into around 126 loft-style housing units and joined by a new 11-story hotel next door.
NCG secured project approvals earlier this year from Madison’s Plan Commission and City Council and planned to start construction this year, but now the developer says plans have changed.
Proposals to redevelop the block have faced trouble before — Missouri developer Drury Southwest was approved to convert it into a large hotel in 2018, and it got as far as demolishing the former Madison College building’s atrium and surface parking lot before abandoning the project during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nonprofit Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp. (WHPC) of Madison in 2022 pitched a 12-story workforce housing project on the vacant portion of the site, and NCG joined the redevelopment to turn the existing building into a hotel. However, WHPC subsequently pulled out, citing rising interest rates and construction costs, and NCG committed to reviving the entire block — a much larger project the developer now says would require “more time and resources to put together the debt and equity structure.”
Madison College still owns the property, and Drury retains the ground lease. NCG ended its agreement with Drury to develop the site, unable to agree on terms.
