Depending on which news sources you follow, Milwaukee is going through either a “renaissance” or a “reinvention.” However you want to define it, it’s safe to say that Milwaukee is currently building a lot of new and wonderful things! Here are some of them, brought to you by GTG Home Buyers!
• It’s been nearly three years since an 8,000-seat soccer stadium was announced for a new “Iron District” in downtown Milwaukee, near the corner of 6th and Michigan. Completion of the new district, which included a 3,500-seat concert venue, a full-service hotel, multi-family residential housing, retail, “and food and beverage elements,” was set for 2024.
That obviously didn’t happen.
It’s been nearly 15 months since there were any signs of life from the hypothetical soccer team that’s supposed to play in the hypothetical soccer stadium in the hypothetical Iron District. “Milwaukee Pro Soccer to begin play in USL in 2026,” read a November 2023 press release. A contest to name the team wrapped up (without an apparent winner) earlier that spring.
So yeah, things have been quiet. Very quiet. Until this week!
In what Urban Milwaukee calls a “seemingly innocuous move,” a $9.3 million land sale from an affiliate of developer Bear Real Estate Group to an affiliate of the Milwaukee Development Corporation hints that the Iron District and soccer stadium project is still very much alive. Urban Milwaukee explains:
The affiliation with the nonprofit would make the stadium, slated to be home to an unnamed men’s Milwaukee Pro Soccer team that competes in the United Soccer League’s Championship League, eligible to accept a $9.3 million state grant of federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
A vacant Ramada hotel on the site was demolished in 2023.
The Milwaukee Business Journal, meanwhile, says Bear anticipates properly breaking ground on the Iron District “by early to mid-summer.” (Plans for the 3,500-seat concert venue were downgraded to a hotel event space in 2023.) The groundbreaking could make the “Milwaukee Pro Soccer to begin play in USL in 2026” press release a reality. [Urban Milwaukee]
• That big ol’ $100 million mixed-use development for the Deer District is moving forward. The plan calls for a seven-story, 269-unit high-end apartment building; a 28,000-square-foot MATC athletic facility; and a 17,900-square-foot public plaza. Construction could begin in August. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• Speaking of seven-story apartment buildings, plans to build one on a long-vacant lot at 2560 N. Stowell Ave.—immediately behind Boswell Book Company on Downer Avenue—is moving forward, too. [Urban Milwaukee]
• And speaking of the Deer District, there’s plenty of drama surrounding both the construction of the Moxy Hotel there, as well as a union dispute relating to a hotel already on the site, The Trade. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• The long-vacant Llewellyn Library at 907 E. Russell Ave. in Bay View could be transformed into an apartment building. [Urban Milwaukee]
• You know that crummy (and confusing) intersection at Michigan and Lincoln Memorial? The one by the fancy new Couture building? The one that has been slated to be spruced up for, like, a decade-plus? Well, work to finally spruce it up got a big $16.5 million boost (thanks to property tax revenue from Northwestern Mutual’s nearby 32-story tower), and could be completed by the end of 2026. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
Want more Milwaukee Record? Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and/or support us on Patreon.
RELATED ARTICLES
• Holy crap, Milwaukee is getting a new 8,000-seat soccer stadium and 3,500-person concert venue
• Mandatory Milwaukee: Facing the nightmare of the Lincoln Memorial lakefront intersection