Regents authorize land buy for research park

The UW System Board of Regents cleared the way today for University Research Park to acquire Town of Middleton property for much-needed future development space.

The board vote will allow the park to purchase roughly 113 acres of land in the Town of Middleton, at a cost of $4.4 million. The property is currently owned by Shapiro and Weston Development Company and is located just south of Mineral Point Road and west of County Highway M. The property is adjacent to the current Madison community communications tower.

The UW–Madison park, located at Mineral Point Road and Whitney Way, has experienced an aggressive growth spurt in the last decade and will soon run out of available land for development, says park Associate Director Greg Hyer. The 250-acre park is home to approximately 90 companies employing more than 2,500 people.

“Given the rate we’re developing, all available land could be gone by next year,” Hyer says. “We only have four undeveloped building sites left. This acquisition will really set us up with high-quality development to handle not just new companies, but the expansion of existing ones.”

Hyer says that the new space in Middleton will be roughly half the size of the current west-side park. The eventual new development will be used to encourage more partnerships between business and university researchers, and help with a big increase in the number of university-based spin-off companies.

In December 2000, regents authorized giving the research park “right of first refusal” on purchasing the property, Hyer says. The park will also pursue rezoning and annexation with the City of Madison, since the land is surrounded on three sides by the Madison city boundary. The purchase will be contingent upon completion of an environmental assessment of the property, and financed through program revenue bonding from the park.