UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz meet for lunch from time to time to keep each other informed about all that’s going on around town.
It was about a year ago during one of these get-togethers that Wiley talked about his hopes of developing an urban research park — targeting high-technology entrepreneurs — on East Washington Avenue.
“And I dropped my dessert fork,” Cieslewicz recalled Monday. “And I said, ‘Chancellor, if there is anything we can do to make that happen, we want to make that happen.’ ”
On Monday, University Research Park Director Mark Bugher announced plans to open a new urban campus in 6,000 square feet of space leased in the former Marquip Building at 1245 E. Washington Ave., which is just more than a mile from the Capitol Square.