Every Friday, Stuff We Missed looks to other Milwaukee publications (and beyond) for, well, stuff we missed throughout the week. This week: another Milwaukee concert venue!
• Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson has said he wants the city’s population to reach one million. If this week’s big news is any indication, those theoretical one million Milwaukeeans will have approximately one million giant concert venues at their disposal. And bubble tea places. Lots of bubble tea places.
Yes, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel‘s Daniel Bice and a “prominent Milwaukee music insider” (ha, we totally know who this is), Potawatomi Hotel & Casino plans to build a $200 million, 6,000-seat concert venue on nearby land in the Menomonee Valley. “It would be shovel in the ground in March or at least the beginning of 2025,” the source tells Bice. Potawatomi has yet to comment on the matter. (The hotel and casino’s Northern Lights Theater closed in January 2023.)
The potential venue is just the latest salvo in the Great Milwaukee Concert Venue War of 2021-24. Things started in December 2021, when Madison-based concert promotion company FPC Live—a division of Live Nation-backed Frank Productions—announced plans to build a two-room venue next to the Summerfest grounds. In May 2022, FPC (and the Milwaukee Bucks) announced the venue would instead be built next to Fiserv Forum in the Deer District—but not before the newly announced Iron District near downtown Milwaukee announced it would be building its own 3,500-seat concert venue (operated by the Pabst Theater Group) to go along with its 8,000-seat soccer stadium. Phew.
Also, the Pabst Theater Group took over operations of the Miller High Life Theatre, a Fiserv-less Milwaukee Theater District was created, and Shank Hall got some new carpet.
Anyway, a lot has changed since 2021. The two-room FPC Live venue has been downsized to a single 4,500-capacity room, and the Iron District venue has been downsized to a hotel event space. Will the Potawatomi venue come to pass? “It appears that the Potawatomi would fund the venue on its own without relying on traditional financing, removing one major hurdle for the construction project,” says the [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel].
• Espernolia and Yolanda Gates plan to open a soul food and jazz-themed restaurant called Espernolia’s Jazz Cafe at 9002 W. Silver Spring Dr. The couple hopes to open the restaurant (which won’t feature live jazz; it’ll just be jazz-themed) sometime this month. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• In “local TV news” news, WISN 12 came to the rescue of two possibly neglected pet guinea pigs in Cudahy… [WISN 12]
• …and took care of an overflowing dumpster on 25th and Concordia. [WISN 12]
• Two former Milwaukee Film executives, Geraud Blanks and Maureen Post, have launched a new “event curation and experiential marketing agency” called Culture x Design. Good luck, Geraud and Maureen! [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• NEWaukee co-founder Jeremy Fojut has left the organization to “shift his focus towards the next chapter of his professional journey.” Good luck, Jeremy! [NEWaukee]
• “New Cocktail Lounge For Bay View.” (It’s called Pink Agave and it’s in the old Blind Tiger spot.) [Urban Milwaukee]
• “Lopez Bakery Sets Closing Date.” (January 14.) [Urban Milwaukee]
• Have a great weekend, Milwaukee! See you at N/A Day!
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