Depending on which news sources you follow, Milwaukee is going through either a “renaissance” or a “reinvention.” Or maybe it’s a “reboot” or a “reimagining,” like that crappy Tim Burton version of Planet Of The Apes. However you want to define it, it’s safe to say that Milwaukee is currently building a lot of new and wonderful things.
• Ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2022-23 season, let’s talk all things Deer District. First, the folks behind that $50 million FPC Live double-room concert venue—the same $50 million FPC Live double-room concert venue that has a lot of local concert promoters worried about losing business to the Live Nation/Ticketmaster-affiliated company—released some renderings. One of the rooms will hold 4,000 people; the other room will hold 800 people. Provided it continues to gain approvals from various city entities (the City Plan Commission recently gave it a thumbs-up), the $50 million FPC Live double-room concert venue is expected to open in 2024. [OnMilwaukee]
• That $50 million FPC Live double-room concert venue is set to occupy a currently vacant chunk of Deer District land that used to be home to the BMO Harris Bradly Center. Unsurprisingly, the Bucks would like to build something else on the remaining chunk. Perhaps a “smaller structure that city officials say could house a retail business, a tavern or a restaurant.” [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• And finally, a high-end hotel being built near Fiserv Forum, The Trade MKE, recently hoisted a 4,500 lb. stone hearth pizza oven up to its under-construction ninth-floor rooftop restaurant. The restaurant, Il Cervo (that’s “deer” in Italian), will be operated by Madison’s Food Fight Restaurant Group. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• An $80 million urban sports complex called The Opportunity Center is being planned for a 22-acre site at 4206 N. Green Bay Ave. The center “would make sports and wellness activities accessible to all people, regardless of race, gender, age, level of experience, ability or disability.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• A County Circuit judge has ruled that Milwaukee can enforce a 2019 order to knock down the long-empty, oft-burning, much-YouTube’d Northridge Mall. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• Ground has been broken on the site of Elevation 1659, a 76-unit apartment tower coming to that slice of land just past where Brady Street bends into Water Street. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• Despite hilarious complaints from neighbors, that four-story, 55-unit apartment building near Downer Avenue is going to be built. Meanwhile… [Urban Milwaukee]
• …some different East Side neighbors—these living near St. Catherine Residence, which provides apartments for homeless people—have some complaints of their own. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• Over at the site of the ever-growing Couture tower, crews recently poured 500 cubic yards of concrete for an adjoining transit pad for The Hop and Milwaukee County Transit System’s Bus Rapid Transit line. [OnMilwaukee]
• They’re almost done rehabbing the Ravine Road Bridge in Lake Park. The bridge has been closed since 2016. It’s expected to reopen this month. [Urban Milwaukee]
• And what did we learn this week? Well, they’re always building something. Isn’t that right, old song from my old band?
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