Related Just over three miles from Wisconsin’s Capitol building, within walking distance of a McDonald’s, a 90,000-square-foot grocery store, and an Amazon distribution center, sits a 65-acre farm.
While there are buildings on the property a red barn, a small ready-mix concrete plant, and a white house the farm’s most striking feature is what is absent. From the corn field running along its southern edge, one can hardly see where the land ends. The open space looks surprisingly vast in this suburban landscape of houses, traffic lights, and gas stations.
The Voit family has owned the farm for roughly 165 years. During that time, the world has changed around it, and developers and Madison city planners have fantasized over its potential. To them, the farm represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: land the size of five Times Squares at the outskirts of Wisconsin’s second-largest city.