Sales & Acquisitions
William Butcher has deep experience representing both buyers and sellers across a wide range of property classes, with an emphasis on development, investment, multifamily, mixed-use, office and industrial. His expertise includes land acquisition; he has represented many development land purchases, including complex infill assemblages, entire-block acquisitions and suburban subdivisions. Most of the acquisitions William has represented were off-market properties uncovered by personal inquiry, sellers contacting him directly, and many years of building a local knowledge base and a reputation for fair dealing.
Acquisition: The 1000 Block of East Washington Avenue - Madison, WI
A full downtown city block formerly owned by Minnesota-based Land O Lakes corporation along with an infill parcel containing a car repair shop. This deal required more than 24 months (2013-2015) to negotiate and close, including entitlement and environmental hurdles. Today the site contains $120 million in real estate between the two new 11-story mixed-use projects. I also leased up the majority of both projects from 2017-2021 (excluding investor tenants and prior commitments), totalling 25,000SF of retail and 80,000SF office. Working with the astute ownership and management team at Stone House Development has been a foundational and rewarding relationship.
Acquisition: 4-Acre Multifamily Site - Starkweather Place, 112 Units, 215 N Fair Oaks Avenue, Madison
New Madison Development’s first large multifamily project, and the first joint venture with Stone House Development, a partnership that continues today at Trader’s Way on Old Sauk Road. Starkweather Place is a 112-unit, ground-up apartment community that is fully stabilized and 100% occupied.
The land was another off-market, targeted acquisition: a four-acre parcel holding several small industrial buildings, one of them the home of an owner-occupied, operating business. It took three years to reach an accepted offer. What made the site worth the wait was 1,500 feet of frontage on Starkweather Creek and a clear look ahead at the 60-acre development coming across the creek, including a new 30-acre city park and an extension of the bike path.
Annexation, site logistics, DNR work and design all showcased New Madison Development’s acumen. The project was annexed from the Town of Blooming Grove and rezoned in 2022, and opened in November 2024.
McGann Construction built Starkweather Place, and working with them was a pleasure from start to finish. Owner Aaron Kostichka and project manager Luke Zick treated the project as if it were their own. New Madison Development looks forward to building with the McGann team again.
Potter Lawson was an essential partner in the design and architecture of Starkweather Place.
Acquisition: The Duncan - Marquee Multifamily Site, 1617 Sherman Avenue, Madison
Represented the buyer, a Chicago-based developer, in the off-market acquisition of the 1601-1617 Sherman Avenue site on Lake Mendota across from Tenney Park, assembled from adjacent parcels and closed in 2024. The site is now The Duncan, a 309-unit apartment community, opened in 2026.
The acquisition was only the start. This was the developer’s first Madison project, and I worked alongside them through Madison’s decidedly complex neighborhood and city approval process: intense neighborhood opposition, efforts to designate physical and natural landmarks on and around the site, engineering heroics on a prominent lakefront parcel, and the future traffic and engineering puzzles that came with it.
Seeing an out-of-state developer through entitlement on a signature Madison site, from first neighborhood meeting to final approval, is the above-and-beyond approach I bring to every assignment.
“William presents as a commercial real estate broker with knowledge of the Madison market. Which he is. But once you get to know him, he’s a world traveler who happens to have chosen Madison as his corner of the world to celebrate and improve. We worked together on a high-profile project on Lake Mendota. William engages like a principal, an entitlement colleague, and a marketing partner to ensure success. I consider him a sounding board and a friend.”
— Darrin Jolas — Managing Director / Vermilion Development
SALE: 205 COMMERCE PARKWAY, COTTAGE GROVE - SINGLE-TENANT INDUSTRIAL
Represented the seller of a leased office and industrial building on five acres in the Cottage Grove Commerce Park, sold off-market to a national manufacturer for the expansion of its adjoining campus. Closed September 2026 at a price that recognized the property’s strategic value to the buyer, well beyond what a leased industrial building typically brings, and one the seller was pleased with.
Arriving at that price meant understanding what the property was worth to this buyer and presenting it that way. Getting to closing was the harder part. The buyer wanted the building empty; the building had a regional tenant with years left on its lease and no reason to leave. Three agreements had to come together at once: the purchase agreement with a national company and its counsel, a vacate agreement that made moving worth the tenant’s while, and a new long-term lease across town so the tenant had somewhere to go (see Tenant Representation). Along the way, a buyer proposal that started at an 18-month inspection period closed with 30 days, a title objection round and survey certification were cleared, and a last-week dispute over what stayed in the building was settled without moving the closing date. Seller, buyer and tenant each got what they needed.
TRADER’S WAY - 144 UNITS AT 6624 OLD SAUK ROAD, MADISON
A New Madison Development project, co-developed with Stone House Development. The site was a four-acre remnant of an original land-grant farmstead, held by one family for generations and surrounded on every side by one of Madison’s most established single-family neighborhoods. Sites like this do not come to market; this one took a direct approach to the owners and a purchase agreement structured around the entitlements that would make it buildable.
Getting those entitlements meant taking a multifamily proposal into a neighborhood that had never had one: neighborhood meetings, Plan Commission, and Common Council, with a rezoning to TR-U2 approved in 2024 for a 144-unit building with underground parking and a pool. Land acquisition and construction financing closed June 2025, and Trader’s Way opened to residents in September 2026.
Potter Lawson was an essential partner in the design and architecture of Trader’s Way.
THE TINSMITH - 828 EAST MAIN STREET, MADISON
A project with my partner Eric Welch. The Tinsmith is the adaptive reuse of a 1920s Trachte-built metal building on East Main Street, a block off the East Washington corridor, pursued for seven years before the owners agreed to sell. The building was stripped to its steel frame and rebuilt as a wedding and event venue with a greenhouse by Jordan and the Madison Greenhouse Company, opening in 2021.
The project won the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation’s award for adaptive reuse in 2021, and it has become one of the busiest event venues in the state and winner of best venue in the state 2025 and 2026. It is the kind of building that most buyers would have torn down; finding the use that justified saving it is what made the deal work.
Acquisition: Mixed-Use Investment - 120 E Wilson Street, Madison
A signature Madison building adjacent to the Capitol Square including a landmark Madison restaurant on the main floor, below-grade retail, and 16 apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The deal required financing that incorporated a post-close remodel of the residential units, which the investor/buyer promptly accomplished, ultimately exceeding expectations and ROI. The building’s evolution continues: a hotel above, operating as The Wilson under the owners’ Voyageur Stays brand, and a boutique spa in the lower level.
Acquisition: The Medallion - 525 E Main Street, Madison
A 21-unit brick-wrapped apartment building in the First Settlement District, purchased by the same owner-developers as 120 E Wilson. They converted it into The Medallion, a custom-furnished, medium-stay hotel concept under the Voyageur Stays brand alongside The Wilson.
Both 120 E Wilson and The Medallion were off-market. The acquisitions came from knowing the owners personally and reaching out to get deals done that buyer and sellers were both pleased with. The win-win is always the goal, and here it was achieved twice.
“William is incredibly knowledgeable about commercial real estate in Madison and exceptionally well connected. He’s smart, thoughtful, persuasive, and persistent in advocating for his clients. We were grateful to have him in our corner-he’s exactly who you want on your side as a broker”
— Julia & Kristopher Steege-Reimann
Voyageur Stays
Acquisition: Historic Adaptive Reuse - 1413 Northern Court, Madison
An all-brick former nickel-plating factory turned warehouse, a block from the thriving Williamson Street district. I secured this off-market acquisition in May 2016, then worked with the owners to design an adaptive reuse retail project and leased every space to the tenants who remain there and are thriving today, ten years later, including two award-winning craft spirit companies with national acclaim and a James Beard Award-finalist cocktail bar. An in-depth market study before purchase established the potential revenue, and the somewhat unconventional retail use I suggested, given the location off the beaten path, ultimately doubled the value of the property after acquisition, improvement and leasing expenses. Signing the distillery tenant (Stateline Distillery) was a long and fruitful engagement that brought tremendous value to the owners and inspired the smaller co-tenants to sign. Added bonus: the distiller is a phenomenal addition to the craft beverage scene in Madison and beyond.
Acquisition: Development Site - Fair Oaks Avenue - Madison, WI
A former landscaping and nursery operation situated on a 1.5 ac corner lot. An acquaintance had this property under contract for over a year and, after encountering insurmountable obstacles, called me and asked if I had anyone mind for a higher and better use for the site As it happened, I did. The resulting mixed-use project incorporated an existing historic railroad siding building as a commercial condo attached to a new 4-story, 80-unit affordable housing development. Another Stone House Development success.
ACQUISITION: MIXED-USE VALUE-ADD CAMPUS - 333 ATLAS AVENUE, MADISON
Represented the buyer in the off-market purchase of the former Quarra Stone campus on Atlas Avenue, a multi-building industrial and office property bought through an entity acquisition. Closed June 2025. Leased five of the buildings and lots to new tenants in the twelve months after closing.
SALE: 2228-2230 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, MADISON
A New Madison Development project: a 2.7-acre site acquired in 2023, leased to the University of Wisconsin in 2025 as a park-and-ride with a purchase option, and sold to UW in December 2025. Investors received a 35% IRR over the hold period.
Acquisition: Neighborhood
Mall Investment
A partially leased 25,000SF retail strip mall near-west Madison. After completing the lease up of all empty spaces and renegotiating all of the existing leases, I also sold this same property for the investor, who reaped a one year seven-figure return. The center was subsequently purchased and redeveloped, to mixed-use residential, notably retaining nearly all of the commercial tenants I had signed or resigned in the prior ownership cycle.
SALE: 210 S DICKINSON STREET, MADISON
A metal building at the edge of Williamson Street’s dining district, an ice house in its distant past and for decades the home of Madison Window Cleaning, was first an acquisition target for demolition and multifamily redevelopment. After several redevelopment attempts stalled on neighborhood opposition and entitlement obstacles, the owners, a family business that had outgrown the building, engaged me to list and sell the property and to find or build a new home for the company.
It became a multifaceted deal: selling the building, relocating Madison Window Cleaning, and securing a build-to-suit tenant for the buyer in Stephan & Brady, a legacy Madison marketing firm. That lease drove a full adaptive-reuse remodel, from industrial warehouse to a design-forward office building, under the same ownership as Northern Court and The Tinsmith. The sellers later engaged me to find and build their new headquarters in Cottage Grove.
Acquisition: New Construction Office/Service, Cottage Grove
After, and in conjunction with, the sale of their facility on Dickinson Street, I worked with the sellers, a family business that had outgrown the building, to complete the purchase and build of their new headquarters in Cottage Grove. This represented another partnership with 1848 Construction.
Acquisition: 10ac Suburban Multi-Family
Adjacent to two premier golf courses, this 10-ac site was designed by the developer for luxury townhomes, prior to which the process entailed successful annexation, rezoning, and conditional use.
Sale: 52-Unit Apartment Building, Milwaukee
A 7-story residential project with a top-floor commercial office condo. Understanding the sunset and transition period of a LIHTC project exiting the affordability term and calculating a blended CAP rate between current tenancy with primarily affordable units to a full market-rate project post-transition was critical to establishing value and navigating due diligence.
Sale: 292-ac Suburban Subdivision/Legacy Wildlife Area
In 2003, I was engaged to list and sell a spectacular piece of land adjacent to the City of Middleton with potential for several hundred luxury home lots. Ultimately I worked with the Seller who decided to sell (at over 50% of the offered rate for development land) the entire property to a consortium of land preservation entities including the Town of Middleton, Dane County, and the WI Department of Natural Resources. Today is a cherished wildlife preserve and one Dane County's largest natural areas open to the public.
SALE: 821 WILLIAMSON STREET - MADISON TEACHERS INC. HEADQUARTERS
Represented Madison Teachers Inc., the teachers’ union, in the sale of its longtime headquarters, a compact infill lot with an older office building in the Williamson Street historic district. Pricing a site like this means knowing the development process in detail, from infrastructure costs to zoning, planning and neighborhood approvals, so the asking price reflects the maximum approvable density and what it costs to build. The listing drew four competing offers; the sale closed in May 2017 at $686,000 to a local developer, and the site is now a new three-story mixed-use building.
Sale: 100+ lot single and multi-family subdivision
50ac ≈ purchase required attachment and annexation to City of Madison. The resulting subdivision included approximately 85 single-family lots of which I listed and sold roughly 50% with the developer retaining the balance.
Sale: 300+ acres trophy rural property
Original 19th century land grant farm included two sale phases; 2008- divided 40 acres into 3 rural residential view lots and, after working with Seller and the township/county, successfully divided, rezoned, and sold the three parcels, and; 2020-2021 Listed and sold the remaining farm. While the listing included working with the Seller to identify ideal land divisions and extensive planning with two separate townships to coordinate a 1 mile new road/driveway and lot divisions, successfully negotiated the sale of the entire farm to a single buyer whose intentions were to preserve the farm intact in perpetuity.
SALE: 811 JENIFER STREET, MADISON
An 1874 Italianate brick residence in the Jenifer-Spaight Historic District with panoramic Lake Monona views. Represented the seller. Listed May 2025; closed summer 2025 in a cash transaction at $1.0 million.
SALE: 521 N STEVENSON STREET, DEFOREST
A 5,040 SF industrial building on 1.28 acres with five overhead doors and a heated mezzanine. Represented the seller. Closed October 2025 at $570,000.
SALE: 824 & 828 E DAYTON STREET, MADISON
Two neighboring income properties two blocks off East Washington Avenue, part of a four-parcel assemblage listed in 2026. Represented the seller. 824 E Dayton closed July 2026 at $575,000; 828 E Dayton closed September 2026 at $485,000.
“When I was looking for a special and appropriate location for placement of Madison’s first cidery and tasting room, William helped me find the right location, helped to negotiate and structure the deal, coached me on what I should and shouldn’t be concerned about—all things you would expect a broker to do. William, however, went well beyond the expected. He helped me connect with a consultant who, in concert with William, helped me design and lay out my kitchen and bar areas. He connected me with the right contractor to do the build out and helped coach me through the process of purchasing my restaurant equipment and furnishings. William and I have remained friends and I will certainly use him for my next project.”
— John Biondi, The Cider Farm