Company announced for vacant building site near West Towne Mall

Chris Gothner by Chris Gothner

Rendering of the proposed new Navitus headquarters

After weeks of silence from city officials and developers over which company would be redeveloping a vacant site at a busy west side intersection, developers finally gave an answer Thursday night.

Navitus Health Solutions intends to redevelop the former Famous Footwear headquarters at 302 S. Gammon Road, most recently Madison College’s west campus, into its new headquarters, developer John Livesey said in a meeting with neighbors.

The decades-old brick building currently on the site would be razed under the plan.

Navitus, a pharmacy benefit manager and a subsidiary of SSM Health, is already based in Madison, but developers said the company intends to add more jobs as it expands its facilities. The company is headquartered on Madison’s south side.

Melissa Huggins, principal at Urban Assets Consulting, who is working with developers on the project, said construction could get started as soon as January of 2018, with hopes of being done by January 2019.

Navitus would then move in that March.

Huggins said the project isn’t a done deal, however; it will have to be approved by Madison’s Plan Commission.

Original plans called for the project to be a mixed-use development with residential spaces and retail, but those plans were later scrapped.

In an interview with News 3 on July 7, before officials announced which company planned to move in, District 7 Alder Paul Skidmore said city leaders will have to make traffic issues top of mind as it considers the project, with the Mineral Point and Gammon intersection being one of the city’s busiest.

“We’re going to have to do some traffic management studies and then see how well this is going to fit in and what we’re going to have to do,” he said. “Very likely, it’s going to mean another traffic signal or so.”

Initial reports said the company planned to add 1,000 jobs to the site, but a breakdown of how many of those jobs would be new still isn’t known as of Thursday night.

News 3 reached out to an SSM Health spokesperson for comment Thursday night. So far, we haven’t received a response.

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