An $83-million project in the heart of Old Town Greenwood is now just months from completion.
The Madison, the redevelopment of the 19-acre former middle school property located along Madison Avenue in downtown Greenwood, is now less than a year from being finished. The development includes six buildings with nearly 329 market-rate apartments and 18 townhomes, along with nearly 21,000 square feet of office and retail space on the first floors of the buildings.
It also includes a 36,000-square-foot, four-story parking garage with 355 spots. Additional surface parking and garages attached to apartment buildings will bring total parking to more than 1,000 spots, with some set aside for residents, and others for the public visiting the area for dining and shopping, or for recreation at nearby parks and the Greenwood Fieldhouse.
The project has been years in the making, city officials say. The vision for the project dates back to 2013 when a master plan for the area was first imagined. The development is a public-private partnership between the city and developers, CRG Residential and Great Lakes Capital.
Construction of the massive project began with a groundbreaking in November 2021. The final buildings are expected to be completed this coming spring.
Parking getting finishing touches
Drivers traveling on Meridian Street near Smith Valley Road have seen the city’s first parking garage go from its concrete foundations to a towering multi-story building.
Soon, they’ll be able to go inside and park. The garage is expected to open in the next few months, said Kevin Steinmetz, capital projects manager for the city of Greenwood.
The four-story parking garage is structurally complete and has been turned over to the city by the developers. Now, the city is working on making final touches like caulking, sealing, adding security cameras and finalizing the gating technology, Steinmetz said.
The new parking garage has 355 spaces, of which a majority, about 275 spaces, will be for The Madison residents. The remaining spaces, which are all located on the first floor, will be public parking, he said.
As part of the project agreement for the parking garage, the developers will pay the city a prorated amount of the operations and maintenance costs in exchange for the 275 reserved spaces, Steinmetz said.
Among the items that will need to be addressed in the new year is how much to charge for public parking. The rate structure will have to be determined by the city council, he said.
“What exactly the rate structure will be has not been fully determined, but it will have a very low rate for what I’ll call short-term (parking) for the first couple hours,” he said. “Like if you’re going to the Fieldhouse, or if you’re going to want to go to commercial or go to Our Lady for maybe some big event, that’ll be very nominal.”
City officials want to charge a rate for public parking at the garage to discourage people from leaving their cars parked for several days, like what happens in the city’s other lots. The garage will have a higher overnight rate in those cases to help recover some of the operations and maintenance costs, he said.
“This is, I believe, the only parking garage in Johnson County, so we’re just going to have to really kind of learn as we go a little bit here,” Steinmetz said.
The parking garage is not the only parking available for residents of The Madison. Two of the buildings have garage parking on the first floor, and there is a large lot in the middle of the development for residents as well, Steinmetz said.
In addition to the first floor of the garage, public parking is also available at the shared lot by Our Lady of the Greenwood Church and the lot at Old City Park by the Greenwood Public Library, he said.
Street parking is also nearing completion along both Madison Avenue and Meridian Street, Steinmetz said. Initial asphalt pavings have been laid in some sections along the roads, while others are awaiting paving.
Residents have expressed concerns about parking in the area since the Fieldhouse opened, and now with The Madison allowing occupants to move in, those concerns have popped up on social media again. Some have also expressed concern about the effect future commercial development of The Madison’s retail spaces will have on parking in Old Town.
Steinmetz says The Madison and the Fieldhouse have more than enough parking spaces, but it will be an adjustment for residents as the area becomes more dense with population.
“There’s been times where, because of construction, parking has been limited,” Steinmetz said. “But over the next few months, and really kind of each week, each month, there’s been new or returned parking that will come online in and around the Fieldhouse.”
The Madison nears completion
Like many projects of the COVID-19 pandemic era, The Madison was affected by supply chain issues and labor constraints. This pushed back the developer’s original schedule for competition, said Clay Scheetz, managing director and principal at Great Lakes Capital.
Some of these issues have continued to be frustrating, like utility work, but Scheetz says the developer persevered through the challenges to get the project done. Two of the four rental buildings opened this year, and the townhomes are also entering the final stage before being occupied.
Scheetz credits CRG Residential, Great Lakes Capital’s partner, with doing a “fabulous job” in navigating the challenges. The city of Greenwood has also been good to work with, he said.
“It’s not always perfect, but I think both sides are absolutely committed to each other and doing things the right way,” Scheetz said. “I think that that is evidenced by the finished product.”
In August, the developers opened the first of the four rental buildings — Building F. This building has 55 units, a plaza and 4,426 square feet of ground-floor commercial/retail space, Scheetz said.
Earlier this month, the second rental building, Building B, was finished. It has 54 units and 4,426 square feet of ground-floor commercial/retail space, he said.
The developers also received a certificate of occupancy for their first townhome unit this month, Scheetz said.
The final 17 townhomes are “substantially complete” and should receive their certificates of occupancy over the next several weeks, Scheetz said. Interest in the townhomes has been “very strong,” and Scheetz expects them to sell out quickly, he said.
“We are very proud of the quality of the townhomes,” Scheetz said. “The city was very particular about requiring high-quality standards, and I think that was very smart and long-term focused.”
As for the two remaining rental buildings, they should both be finished by the spring.
Building E, which has 149 units and 6,217 square feet of ground-floor commercial/retail space, should open in March. Building G, with its 71 units, plaza and 5,330 square feet of ground-floor commercial/retail space should open in April 2024, Scheetz said.
Scheetz says the rental market has responded “very favorably” to the apartments. About 20% of the total number of project units were pre-leased before the developers opened the first building, he said.
As of Dec. 17, the developers are 70% occupied on the units already finished. In comparison to the total number of units expected once complete, they are 34% leased and 23% occupied, Scheetz said.
Final touches of landscape, streetscape, asphalt and other site work will also be wrapped up in the spring, he said.
“Watching Mayor Myers’ and other city leadership’s vision for this whole area come together has been a lot of fun,” Scheetz said.
“Our ultimate hope and goal is when the construction of this project is complete, that the residents, townhome owners, retailers, commercial space users, restaurants, Fieldhouse visitors, guests enjoying the project, and the general public love their experiences and are very happy with the project.”
