The Urban League of Greater Madison’s Black Business Hub’s Role in South Madison Development: Ensuring Development Benefits for All in South Madison
Dr. Ruben Anthony Jr., the CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison, is the former deputy secretary of transportation during Gov. James Doyle’s administration.
By Jonathan Gramling
South Madison has been a hidden gem almost since it fell into economic decline back in the late 1960s-1970s when much of its commercial sector, places like Marshalls, Eagle Food Store, Marc’s Big Boy and others. It was also hobbled by being connected to the rest of Madison by a two-lane Park St. that was expanded to four lanes until 1982. What development and investment that did occur, for the most part, was governmental with the city’s purchase of the Villager and commercial space was filled with social service agencies.
While the area’s commercial and business economy lagged, it did have a rich cultural identity as it was the most diverse area in the city with the growth of the African American, Latinx, Hmong and other communities through the years. But these communities, for the most part, lacked the economic muscle that would sustain a vibrant commercial and business sector. And often when people made it professionally, they moved to other areas of the metropolitan area with dwellings that they could now afford.
But conditions are changing now and the area known as South Madison with the S. Park Street serving as its center is prime for economic and development growth. For one, the area is now under one municipal government since the cities of Madison and Fitchburg annexed the last remaining parts of the Town of Madison in November 2022.
“It is helpful to have this area under one municipal government,” said Dr. Ruben Anthony Jr., CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison. “It gives you the continuity of policy. And it gives you additional space for future development because some of the Town of Madison is under-developed. It gives the residents of the Town of Madison an opportunity to share in the rich resources that the city of Madison has in terms of public services.”
Another factor leading to development pressures is the accelerated development of the greater Madison area where it has been projected that the area might grow by as much as 35 percent by 2050.
“Here in the city of Madison, we’re landlocked,” Anthony said. “And in urban planning, we would call it inelastic. There is no room to expand. There is no new land. So any development that happens here is going to be in-fill development. If you look at the city and some of the most blighted stuff in the city with strip malls half-empty and some other land abandoned, those are prime pieces of property for future investment. I’m really happy that the city has locked up some of that land. We have to watch those and we have to be a part of how those things get developed and be a part of what the mayor and her planners and the developers see happening here in South Madison.”
Earlier this year, the city of Madison announced plans for an eight-story building to be built on the corner of Badger Road and S. Park Street where the South Transfer Point and Centro Hispano currently are. With this building and the march of development down S. Park Street where the triangle of land bordered by Wingra Drive, Fish Hatchery Road and Park Street has seen significant investment, along with the creation of Madison College’s Goodman South Campus, the Center for Black Excellence, Centro Hispano’s new building on Hughes Place, an upgraded Penn Park, the Urban League’s Black Business Hub and Mt. Zion Baptist Church’s plans to build a family life center on its existing property, the area is poised for significant development
And it has always been a hidden gem due to its location.
“This is ideal an ideal geographic location because when you get off the Beltline, this is the southern entry point into the city. It’s not just the entry to S. Park Street. It’s the entry to UW-Madison. It’s the entry to basketball and football. It’s the entry to downtown, Overture and all that has to offer. It’s one exit from Rimrock Road, which is the entry to the Alliant Energy Center and the entry to the downtown lakefront. This is a very strategic location.”
And its vistas just a few floors from ground level overlook much of the city.
“If you drive some of the neighborhoods that are adjacent to South Madison, these things are beautiful,” Anthony said. “And if you are coming from Edgewood College along Drake Street, the vantage point of seeing Lake Wingra. On the roof, you can see the Capitol. You can see Alliant Energy Center and all of this other stuff. It’s been a hidden gem for many years.”
The price of homes has been skyrocketing in Madison in recent years following a national trend. South Madison has not been immune to these economic trends, a trend that has made housing in Madison less affordable for poor and working families as well as young people wanting to enter the housing market.
“When we started looking for houses for Housing 2.0, the second phase of our homeownership, houses in this area were $90,000,” Anthony observed. “Some were $100,000. That same house is now $270,000 to $300,000. It has gone up that much. Even before the interest rates went up, houses had gone up that much. It was a rocket-hot market and changed the price of housing and made its affordability even beyond the reach of most people.”
As the development occurs, the affordability of residential and commercial spaces and properties changes and prices tend to trend upwards.
“The thing that we really have to be careful about is to make sure that some of these developments that are happening close to the campus and coming down Park Street where they are charging $2,500-$3,000 per month for rent we have to make sure that it is not all that,” Anthony said about development in South Madison. “I understand that when people make investments, they want to get returns. We have to balance it so that we don’t drive people out of the community, folks who have grown up around her and worked and gone to church around here and then they can’t afford to be here. That’s the best way to cause gentrification and drive people out for that to happen. It happened in Harlem. It happened in Yonkers where I grew up, so it can happen here. I’ve seen it happen in many neighborhoods, particularly when you are resource rich in terms of having lakes and all of this other stuff here. This is a beautiful area when you pull back and take a look at it.”
And that is the other side of a double-edged sword that is development. The development market, especially when it heats up and is left unfettered, sees the color green and not Black and Brown.
“The thing that we have to make sure doesn’t happen is that folks come in here and make it impossible for Brown and Blacks to stay here, make it impossible for Brown and Black people to be a part of this economic renaissance that we are going to see,” Anthony emphasized.
And so Anthony wants to see the people who have historically called South Madison home be a part of the development and help guide it.
“The thing that has to happen is that these can’t be one-and-done types of opportunities,” Anthony said about the Center for Black Excellence, Centro Hispano’s building and others. “They have to give us the opportunity to continue to partner, to continue to help with the development of these spaces. A lot of us have the training in urban planning and development. Let us help. We don’t have the same level of Black and Brown developers here in Madison that they have in Milwaukee. But we all have our different experiences where we can be helpful. If the mayor and this community allow us to be a part of how this transformation happens, I can tell you that it will happen in a way that it will be inclusive, smart and lift all boats and not just Brown and Black boats. Brown and Black people want to be a part of it. They want to help. They want to help craft a vision for where we ought to go. Let’s not just sit on the sidelines and you tell us this is what you are going to do and make excuses about why we can’t be at the table. Let us be at the table. Let us help design this. We have a good idea of what people want. And we engage enough with them for them to tell us what they want here.”
