Eyes on Milwaukee
Deer District Concert Venue Wins First Approval, Despite Objections
Other concert venues fight Live Nation's entrance into Milwaukee market.
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Other concert venues fight Live Nation's entrance into Milwaukee market. Back to the full article.
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Umm, the forum is already a huge venue?? Why bother building another right next to it? Not to mention lots of ugly unusable structure on most of the block, nothing for pedestrians to see or do.
The Deer District is at an inflection point in its development, after which there will be no turning back.
It is moving evermore away from its original vision as a mixed-use neighborhood and toward becoming another destination entertainment/nightlife area. Not awful in and of itself, but putting a couple of concert venues here, I believe, will only serve to amp up the energy–much of it alcohol-fueled–making the area less attractive to other uses. This combined with the MLK Jr. Drive and north Water Street bar scenes really just turns the entire northwest side of downtown into a loud, sloshy mess at night and little-occupied most other times.
New office space in downtown is a tough proposition these days and, frankly, so is conventional retail. However, I wish the Bucks could find it in their hearts and imaginations to focus on residential, live-work, co-working and student housing spaces (and also commercial) to the greatest extent possible. Residential will drive the desire for other amenities outside of hotels and bars. Think about other possible nonprofit neighbors. The Bucks already know this. They started with the Froedtert-Medical College and residential loft projects to the north and they had to be instrumental getting the Museum to relocate to the north.
We will soon find out which way the Deer District is headed.