MADISON, WI – Today, hospitality workers and community members rallied in downtown Madison to demand that the Madison Area Technical College (MATC) terminate their lease with hotel developer Drury Madison, LLC following eight years of delays and find a responsible developer for the site.
Dozens gathered near the site of the failed hotel development at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and East Dayton Street with a dump truck and banner that read: “Tell MATC: DUMP DRURY.” Today’s rally launched a public petition by the same name.
In 2018, Madison College signed a lease with Drury Madison, LLC to develop a hotel at the MATC Downtown Campus site. Eight years later, Drury has failed to begin construction and the site sits vacant. According to a 2021 amendment to the lease between MATC and Drury, delays have already led to more than $2 million in “deferred rent.” To date, the project has produced zero new hospitality jobs for Madison and left an unsightly pit just steps from the Capitol.
Following the rally, participants chanted at the site of the delayed Drury hotel project with signs and distributed leaflets to passersby with a link to the petition.
“I’m proud to be a hospitality worker here in Madison. But having a vacant lot in the middle of downtown hurts our industry and our city. MATC needs to dump Drury and find a better developer for this site,” said Miles Beining, a former MATC student who works at the front desk at the Hilton Madison Monona Terrace and has lived in Madison for nearly his whole life.
“Madison deserves a thriving downtown and healthy hospitality industry. Our members want to see responsible hospitality development in the areas where they live and work. The taxpayers who fund MATC deserve better than delays and broken promises. We urge the MATC Trustees to terminate the lease with Drury,” said UNITE HERE Local 1 Executive Vice President Lou Weeks.
According to an amended ground lease, MATC has until October 1, 2026, to exercise its termination right in favor of another project. The rally and petition launch come ahead of the July meeting of the MATC Board of Trustees.
