Today, the City received the updated Hotel Feasibility Study from Johnson Consulting of Chicago, Illinois. In July 2012, the City Council authorized an update to the City-commissioned 2009 Hunden Hotel Feasibility Study. The updated hotel market information was to be prepared in advance of issuing a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for development teams for Judge Doyle Square, a proposed development on the Municipal Building block (Block 88) and the Government East Public Parking Ramp (Block 105) in downtown Madison. The parking ramp would be re-built as part of the project.

Johnson Consulting was selected by the City following a competitive process in August 2012. Johnson Consulting is a leading real estate and hospitality-consulting firm based in Chicago. The firm works on many types of real estate uses, including convention and conference centers, arenas, stadiums, hotels, entertainment/urban development districts, performing arts facilities and tourism attractions.

Key findings from the study include:

1. Madison is a very robust meeting and convention market and competes at a tier above its position, as opposed to smaller markets.

2. The Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center is a significant public asset. To retain and grow its business, additional hotel rooms and function space must be added in the downtown.

3. An additional hotel of at least 400 rooms is needed to support Monona Terrace, which confirms the earlier recommendations in the City-commissioned Hunden Report.

4. The proposed Judge Doyle Square development can address the most significant of the competitive challenges for Monona Terrace; more hotel rooms in close proximity to the center.

5. A new hotel will induce more demand than it takes from other hotel properties and will help the market and Monona Terrace to be stronger rather than weaker.

The Judge Doyle Square Committee will receive a presentation on the hotel study results at its public meeting on Monday, January 14, 2013 at 5:30 p.m. in Room LL-110 of the Madison Municipal Building, 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The hotel study is available online at:

http://madison.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=1267408&GUID=EAEAF...