With its first Madison student housing apartment on Park Street fully rented before the first tenants move in, Chicago-based developer CRG is looking to build a new 511-bed complex called Mifflin Chapter.
The proposed six-story, 163-unit apartment building would require the demolition of several residences on the 400 block of West Washington Avenue and 400 block of West Mifflin Street, according to a July 29 memo sent to Madison’s Urban Design Commission. If approved, CRG plans to start construction in winter 2025 and have the project finished by summer 2027.
Alison Mills, CRG vice president of design and development, said in the memo that the complex would help address Madison’s housing shortage, which is among the worst in the nation. Madison has the lowest market-level rental vacancy rate of the nation at 2.8%, according to a May 2024 report from the National Apartment Association.
“As the population of Madison and the enrollment of the university continue to grow rapidly, redevelopment of the property will provide necessary housing and density for the neighborhood,” Mills said.
Madison Ald. Mike Verveer, whose district includes the proposed development site, tells Isthmus that student housing projects have been “proposed left and right” over the last few years, with some developers potentially invigorated by UW-Madison’s growing student enrollment.
He says it’s premature to declare whether he supports the project or not, but he does support adding housing in the area. He says CRG has done well in adapting the building to fit the neighborhood’s character at the street level, but thinks there are potential revisions that could make the building seem less like “one huge building taking up most of the block” at higher levels.
Verveer adds that he’d like to see only one driveway into the building, rather than the two proposed, in order to preserve green space and trees on West Washington Avenue. He says just the smaller Mifflin-facing section of the building could house the driveway, similar to what was done for the nearby Avenir apartment building.
CRG declined to include affordable housing units in the proposal in private conversations and in public hearing sessions, Verveer says. He says CRG’s decision to forego the height limit extension permitted for buildings with affordable units came down to math — the developer said it can “make the numbers work fine with wood-frame construction,” rather than the steel or concrete materials required by taller buildings.
Chapter Madison, located at the intersection of Park and Regent streets, finished construction in 2024. The 10-story, 534-bed apartment complex was fully rented prior to its Aug. 21 move-in date. New applicants are advised to join the building’s fall 2025-26 waitlist.
CRG plans to submit a land use application this fall for the project, located between 418-446 W. Washington Ave. and 413-417 W. Mifflin St.. Verveer says he will host a meeting on the proposal Sept. 12.
