Commercial HVAC & Mechanical
- Manufacturing plants284
- Medical and dental office buildings160
- Senior living and skilled nursing104
- Hotels56
- Commercial property management firms41
Madison has 2,042 businesses with 20 or more people on site across the categories commercial trades sell to, and it leans toward senior living and nursing and apartment and residential property managers more than the U.S. as a whole. Here is how each trade's market looks, where the buildings are and when to call.
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Ranked by larger buildings per contractor against up to 100 markets (only markets with 10 or more contractors in a trade are ranked; n/r means not ranked). A higher rank means more buildings worth calling for every competitor working them.
| Trade | Contractors | 1-yr change | Larger buildings | Per contractor | Rank | Eligible targets | Push months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial HVAC & Mechanical Largest buyer group: manufacturing plants | 44 | -5 | 698 | 15.9 | #5 | 1,057 | Apr–May, Sep–Nov |
| Commercial Roofing Largest buyer group: retail stores | 11 | 0 | 1,167 | 106.1 | #8 | 2,439 | Feb–Apr |
| Commercial Construction Largest buyer group: manufacturing companies | 80 | -4 | 661 | 8.3 | #9 | 2,439 | Year-round |
| Fire Protection Largest buyer group: restaurants | 16 | 0 | 1,147 | 71.7 | #10 | · | Year-round |
| Paving & Asphalt Largest buyer group: retail stores | 19 | 0 | 1,065 | 56.1 | #16 | · | Feb–Apr |
| Commercial Electrical Largest buyer group: retail stores | 77 | +1 | 1,030 | 13.4 | #20 | · | Year-round |
| Commercial Painting & Coatings Largest buyer group: retail stores | 14 | -1 | 1,232 | 88.0 | #19 | · | Feb–Apr |
| Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial Largest buyer group: manufacturing plants | 200 | +15 | 771 | 3.9 | #48 | 770 | Year-round |
| Commercial Landscaping Largest buyer group: retail stores | 303 | -2 | 1,074 | 3.5 | #53 | · | Feb–Apr |
| Commercial Flooring Largest buyer group: ambulatory health care: physician, dental, outpatient and urgent care | 9 | +1 | 599 | 66.6 | n/r | · | Year-round |
Every trade has its own target list. Here are the five largest target industries for each program in the Madison metro, with local location counts; each guide lists all ten and who your SDR asks for.
Locations with 20 or more employees, U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023. Property management and similar categories count every company, whatever its size.
Named, sourced projects current as of 2026-10, and the trades each one puts to work.
An eight-story, 395,000-square-foot engineering building on the UW-Madison campus in Madison, replacing a building demolished in 2025.
The state bid an $89.5 million mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection package with mobilization from December 2025, so MEP and fire protection crews are busy through 2028, followed by flooring, painting and building service work.
The Daily Reporter, 2025-10-22 →A four-story outpatient clinic at 750 University Row on Madison's west side with primary care, urgent care, imaging, lab, rehabilitation and pharmacy space.
Clinic interiors bring HVAC, electrical and fire protection work through 2027, then flooring and finish trades before patients arrive in early 2028; UW Health additions at University Hospital and East Madison Hospital are running at the same time.
WisBusiness, 2025-11-10 →A 136,000-square-foot humanities building at North Park and West Johnson streets on the UW-Madison campus with 13 classrooms and a rooftop garden.
Now open, the building moves into service contracts: custodial, HVAC maintenance, fire protection inspections and rooftop garden and grounds care.
C.D. Smith Construction, 2026-09-23 →Rebuilds or renovations of 10 of the district's oldest schools across seven Madison sites, starting with new buildings for Black Hawk/Gompers on the far North Side and Sherman/Shabazz on the North Side.
The new North Side buildings are under construction through 2027, then the old schools come down and the lawns are rebuilt on their footprint, with a second phase of referendum projects to follow. Building envelope, roofing, flooring, painting and site and grounds work all run through the program.
Madison365, 2026-09-24 →Madison Public Library's 10th branch and a four-season park pavilion at 1814 Parkside Drive in Reindahl Park on Madison's northeast side.
With the library and pavilion now open, the city buys ongoing custodial, HVAC maintenance and park grounds care for a building used year-round.
Madison365, 2026-09-21 →Reconstruction of the John Nolen Drive causeway along Lake Monona between the Madison Beltline and downtown, starting with the stretch from East Lakeside Street to South Broom Street.
The contract covers milling, grading and new asphalt and concrete paving, six reconstructed causeway bridges and three new bike and pedestrian bridges, new traffic signals and lighting, and a rebuilt shoreline, with the Madison LakeWay waterfront project expected to follow in 2027.
Finance & Commerce, 2025-09-18 →Galway Companies' mixed-use village on about 12.5 acres along West Broadway in Monona, with close to 700 apartments, about 25,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a 1.5-acre city park; the first phase replaces the Broadway Building at 1709 W. Broadway.
Phase one is two six-story buildings with about 357 apartments, covered parking and surface lots for retail, so shell, roofing, interior finish and lot paving work runs into 2028, with a second two-building phase planned next door.
Wisconsin State Journal, 2026-09-30 →A proposed Sub-Zero distribution warehouse on about 80 acres of farmland south of Whalen Road, expanding the business park on Verona's southeast side.
If approved, a building this size means steel and tilt-up shell work, a very large low-slope roof, warehouse sprinklers, electrical service for a 24-hour operation and truck courts and lots sized for about 70 truck trips a day.
Wisconsin State Journal, 2026-09-29 →A 97,200-square-foot YMCA on McKee Road in Fitchburg with two pools, two gymnasiums, a childcare center for up to 100 children and a 10,000-square-foot Access Community Health Centers clinic, replacing Madison's West YMCA.
The build runs through 2027 with a new roof, interior painting across gyms, pools and childcare rooms, pool HVAC and a large parking lot behind the building; once open in 2028 a facility with pools, childcare and a clinic needs daily custodial service.
Wisconsin State Journal, 2026-06-24 →A free-standing 40-private-room inpatient rehabilitation hospital at 5094 Greenmarket Place, at Lacy Road and Highway 14 in Fitchburg, built by Findorff.
Interior trades are on site into early 2027: sprinkler and fire alarm systems for an inpatient hospital, patient-room and therapy-gym flooring, and mechanical and electrical fit-out for a 40-room hospital that Lifepoint will operate day to day.
WKOW 27 News, 2025-10-30 →Renovation of the five-story, 98,000-square-foot Science Hall at Park and Langdon streets on the UW-Madison campus, a building on the National Register of Historic Places, into a hub for geography, environmental studies and geospatial science.
Work starting in 2027 covers a roof replacement, masonry and terracotta repair, window upgrades, HVAC and mechanical system upgrades, and interior rebuilds that remove non-historic partitions for new labs and gathering space.
UW-Madison News, 2026-05-21 →Health systems, campuses, large employers and industrial parks hold the biggest concentrations of commercial buildings here. Each fact links to its source, checked 2026-10.
UW Health reports more than 4 million appointments a year through its outpatient clinics, and all three of its Madison hospitals were undergoing renovations as of November 2025.
Runs University Hospital, East Madison Hospital, American Family Children's Hospital and a clinic network, all with HVAC, life-safety, cleaning and parking needs.
WMTV 15 News →UW-Madison reported total enrollment of 51,865 for the fall 2025 semester.
Operates a large urban campus of academic, research, residence and athletic buildings with constant roofing, mechanical, flooring and grounds work.
University of Wisconsin-Madison News →Epic Systems had 14,000 employees in 2025 and is headquartered at 1979 Milky Way in Verona.
Runs a large corporate campus of office buildings, landscaped grounds and parking that needs ongoing cleaning, grounds care and building systems work.
Wikipedia →American Family Mutual Insurance Company is headquartered in Madison and reported 13,500 employees company-wide in 2022.
Headquarters office campus with occupied-building cleaning, HVAC, electrical and grounds needs.
Wikipedia →The city-run park on U.S. Highway 51 next to the airport's air and ground shipping terminal lists 2.5 and 3.43 acre parcels as available.
Industrial-zoned lots where new buildings bring site work, paving, power and fire protection, then recurring lot and grounds maintenance.
City of Madison →The airport served nearly 2.5 million passengers in 2025, its most ever and a 6% increase from 2024.
County-owned terminal, parking garage, hangars and airfield pavement that need mechanical, roofing, paving and cleaning work.
WMTV 15 News →Compared with the national mix, Madison over-indexes on senior living and nursing, apartment and residential property managers and golf courses and country clubs. The fastest-growing categories over the past year: medical, dental and outpatient offices (+73), wholesale distributors (+33) and senior living and nursing (+30).
| Category | Sites with 20+ | All establishments | vs. U.S. mix | 1-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 476 | 1,626 | 1.20x | +24 |
| Retail stores | 461 | 2,026 | 0.99x | 0 |
| Manufacturing plants | 284 | 709 | 1.05x | -11 |
| Wholesale distributors | 167 | 760 | 0.91x | +33 |
| Medical, dental and outpatient offices | 160 | 1,063 | 0.81x | +73 |
| Senior living and nursing | 104 | 257 | 1.70x | +30 |
| Grocery stores | 72 | 232 | 0.79x | +2 |
| Hotels | 56 | 140 | 1.25x | +2 |
| Auto dealerships | 50 | 116 | 1.14x | -3 |
| Bank and credit union offices | 45 | 343 | 1.10x | +3 |
| Trucking companies | 43 | 325 | 0.94x | -10 |
| Churches and religious organizations | 39 | 376 | 0.19x | +1 |
| Private K-12 schools | 21 | 41 | 0.57x | -3 |
| Apartment and residential property managers | 15 | 144 | 1.58x | +26 |
| Warehousing and distribution | 13 | 33 | 1.10x | +4 |
| Hosting and data processing companies | 11 | 39 | 0.65x | +7 |
| Golf courses and country clubs | 11 | 31 | 1.37x | -1 |
| Hospitals | 8 | 15 | 0.72x | +3 |
| Commercial property managers | 3 | 41 | 0.57x | -1 |
| Nonresidential building owners | 3 | 58 | 1.17x | +3 |
| Colleges and universities | 0 | 5 | 0.42x | +3 |
Dane County, Columbia County and Green County hold 98% of the metro's larger business sites. Most programs start in those counties and add the outer 1 county for larger accounts, depending on how far your crews travel.
| County | Larger business sites |
|---|---|
| Dane County | 1,716 |
| Columbia County | 145 |
| Green County | 67 |
| Iowa County | 36 |
Outdoor trades (roofing, paving, landscaping, exterior painting) work the months with lows of 40°F or above and sell in the months before. HVAC sells ahead of its heating and cooling peaks. Each trade page has its own calendar.
Wisconsin has no statewide commercial general contractor license. DSPS's Dwelling Contractor certification applies to building permits for one- and two-family homes, while trades such as electrical, HVAC, and fire sprinkler are credentialed by DSPS statewide.
Trade-by-trade rules are on each trade page. Confirm with Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS). Checked 2026-09-30.
Before you hire a sales development rep in Madison, price the whole job, not just the salary. Here is the local pay for sales representatives, and what a first year really costs once you add commission, payroll taxes and benefits, tools, recruiting and the manager time it takes to coach them.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025. Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services and travel (SOC 41-3091).
In-house adds $15,000 commission, 25% payroll taxes and benefits, $500/month tools, $5,000 recruiting and 4 manager hours a week at $75/hour, before ramp time or turnover. Abstrakt includes the SDR, management, tools and data.
Abstrakt's U.S.-based business development reps build a Madison target list around your trade, service area and ideal buildings, work it by phone, email, LinkedIn and direct mail, and book meetings with the people who sign. We will not run the same program for a direct competitor in your territory.
Selling into Wisconsin? See the Wisconsin outbound calling rules: do-not-call lists, calling hours and registration, so you know what a program here has to handle.
Yes. Abstrakt runs outsourced appointment setting for commercial trades across the Madison, WI metro: our U.S.-based business development reps call the buildings, qualify the opportunity and book meetings with the person who signs. We run one program per trade per market.
Measured by larger buildings per contractor against the 100 markets we track (where a trade has at least 10 local contractors), commercial HVAC & Mechanical (#5), commercial Roofing (#8) and commercial Construction (#9) rank best in Madison.
Compared with the national mix, Madison has more senior living and nursing (1.70x), apartment and residential property managers (1.58x) and golf courses and country clubs (1.37x). Those industries are the best-represented buyers for trades that serve them.
The metro covers 4 counties. Dane County, Columbia County and Green County hold 98% of the larger business sites, so most programs start there.
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