With the website now up, we can now look further into what is planned for WaterStone. See also the land-use plan I posted on here a couple months back, which in some ways is a better representation of the final product. Here's a "conceptual master plan" posted on the website:
Retail Center
Now, here's a close-up of the retail center portion of the project. The plans for this portion of the development:- A suburban retail strip, with 2-3 junior anchors and one big-box anchor. Target would be the best bet for the big-box, considering the Madison area will already have 2 Wal-Mart Supercenters before this project is built. For one of the junior anchors? Barnes and Noble. They like to be near lifestyle centers (discussed later).
- A grocery store. Publix just opened a store about 3 1/2 miles north of the WaterStone site. Kroger has an older, yet recently renovated store about 4 1/2 miles northeast, but it might be far enough away to warrant a new store. The store that's going to occupy this space is anybody's guess.
- A movie theater.
- A open-air lifestyle center, with probably 20-30 stores similar to the ones at Bridge Street. Probably no new names to the metro, but ones that are traditional lifestyle center tenants-- Ann Taylor Loft, Chico's, Coldwater Creek, Bath & Body Works, etc.
Ok, so I had a little fun with this picture. But if my lines are too confusing for you, here's a text summary:
- Two 4-5 story condo buildings adjacent to the lake.
- A civic (municipal) building. I'm guessing Madison wants to build city government offices here.
- Two art gallery/education buildings and a performing arts center. This part of the project is at best "iffy." Remember when Bridge Street had plans for a performing arts center?
- The true town center area will have buildings with retail on the bottom floor and offices on the upper floors, with a common area in the middle.
- Two waterfront buildings will have retail on the bottom floor, like the town center, but with condos/lofts on the upper floors instead of offices.
- An office park with up to 2 million sq. ft. of space. This might come in handy when and if BRAC comes.
- A 66-acre medical park with 1 million sq. ft. of space. It is odd that they are dedicating such a large tract to medical purposes when there isn't a hospital proposed here. The planned Madison Hospital will be located on 72 West.
- An 800-unit apartment complex.
- A 150-200 room "limited-service, extended stay" hotel. Example brands: Staybridge Suites, Homewood Suites, Hyatt Place.
