Back again for the first time, it's The Madison. But the downtown development isn't bigger and better. This time it's a bit leaner and meaner.
Jeff Helminski, the developer, has cut the plans down from 14 stories to four after the Ann Arbor Planning Commission recommended rejecting the original plans. That means the number of rental apartments has been chopped from 161 to about 60.
But many of the details of the project remain the same. It's still aiming at providing work-force housing for people who work downtown or want to live in one. It's still going to incorporate sustainable features and affordable housing. A handful of old student-ghetto houses will be razed to make room for the structure on the north side of Madison Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues.
The new plans, which will be submitted to the city late this month, call for a 4-story building with one level of underground parking. The apartments will range in size from studios to four-bedrooms. The building's design will take cues from surrounding architecture, such as industrial finished from the Fingerle Lumberyard across the street.
"It will be a modern façade," Helminski says.
Source: Jeff Helminski, developer of The Madison
Writer: Jon Zemke
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