Market Data
Downtown Madison offers a thriving market for your retail, restaurant, entertainment or service business, in a top-ranked place to live, work and prosper. For a newly updated (Fall 2012) summary of downtown Madison market data, trade areas, demographics and psychographics, visitor data, and consumer spending potential, download here.

Also Available: Retail Niches and Business Clustering strategies.

Results of 2009 survey: Downtown Entertainment Options-What's Missing?

See also the 2007 Downtown Madison Market Analysis Study.

Retail space for lease
Retail/restaurant properties for lease in central downtown Madison.

Downtown Madison

Downtown Madison: The Place for Business
Set on an isthmus between two scenic lakes, Madison's Central Business District encompasses the heart of downtown Madison, where the famed State Street pedestrian mall links the Capitol square, seat of Wisconsin state government, to the University of Wisconsin campus.

The central downtown is home to more than 1,500 businesses--from shops, boutiques, and restaurants to financial, law and communications firms--plus museums and cultural destinations. The Business Improvement District includes more than 350 shops, galleries, restaurants, night spots, and entertainment and service businesses, from national brands to locally owned.

Downtown Summer Sidewalk Sale

The central downtown serves a thriving residential market, with 1,300 area condo units and 1,800 rental units added since 1995, as well as the University of Wisconsin campus with 42,000 students and 18,000 faculty and staff.

Recent Madison accolades include:

• One of the Nation's 25 Best Cities, Kiplinger's Personal Finance, 2007
• One of the Top Ten Greenest Cities, Yahoo! Real Estate, 2007
• Madison Area Rated One of the Nation's 10 Top Metros for Income Growth, Bizjournals, 2007
• One of the 30 Best Towns in America, Outside, August, 2007
• Madison one of the top 50 cities in Fortune's Small Business, "Best Places to Live and Launch," 2008
• Madison one of "Five Perfect College Towns," Smarter Travel, August, 2007
• Top Medium-Sized Metro in the Arts, Creative Class Group, 2007
• Wisconsin's "most sophisticated city," New York Times Style Magazine, 2008

State Capitol & Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (Photo: Jim Brozek)

Located in south Central Wisconsin, Madison is just off Interstates I-90, I-94 and I-39, with easy driving access from Milwaukee (90 minutes), Chicago (2.5 hours) and Minneapolis (4.5 hours). Dane County Regional Airport offers non-stop service to many major US cities.

Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, the University and downtown hotels offer top-notch meeting and convention facilities, with more than 1,200 hotel rooms within walking distance of central downtown.

Downtown Madison is served by a network of wireless transmitters, making Madison one of the first cities of its size to go wireless.

Learn more