User:Chunco/West Gate Mall Madison, WI

Located on the busy west side of beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, Westgate Mall is a small enclosed retail center totalling just over 250,000 square feet in size. It is located along Whitney Way between Odana Road and Tokay Blvd, near the West Beltline Highway. Westgate is flanked by anchor stores TJ Maxx, Hancock Fabrics, and Dunhams Sports. The mall also has a DMV Service Center, Cosmetology School, Art Cinema, several apparel stores, other retail outlets and two fast food establishments. In addition, the mall contains a great deal of office space for tenants such as healthcare software author Epic Systems (partially in an old Sergio’s Mexican restaurant). Adjacent to the mall are several large office buildings including the University of Wisconsin Research Park, where stem cell research and biotechnology occur. Across from Westgate Mall are several other large shopping centers, including a Copp’s grocery store, Marshall’s and several sit-down restaurants.

Westgate is owned by Denver-based real estate investment and management group J. Herzog. They acquired the property in 1990 and were responsible for the center’s major renovation during the mid to late 1990s.

The city of Madison is the second largest as well as capital city of Wisconsin with a population of about 220,000 and a metro population of about 500,000. It is frequently ranked as one of the best places to live in America and boasts one of the better (and larger) state universities in the country, UW-Madison. Madison currently has four enclosed malls: West Towne Mall, Westgate, and Hilldale mall on the city’s economically bustling west side, and East Towne Mall for the east side. There was a substantial enclosed mall on the southeast side called South Towne, but it was disenclosed and turned into a strip center in 2000 and currently remains mostly occupied. Also, there is a lifestyle center in northwest suburban Middleton called Greenway Station, with many upscale shops and restaurants.

Westgate is our textbook definition of an ancillary enclosed mall. An ancillary mall is one that lies in the shadow of a larger, often very successful dominant center. Westgate is about one mile from the Madison area’s most dominant center, West Towne Mall, which was recently renovated and expanded to include Dick’s Sporting Goods, H&M, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and soon J Crew.