Harley Park and The Hub Take Shape

Harley Park and The Hub. Photos by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County’s Harley Park is looking brand new, and, in a way it is.

In 2023, Milwaukee County agreed to change the name of Highland Park to Harley Park in exchange for $350,000 in park improvements and long-term maintenance from the Harley-Davidson Foundation.

The park, at 3800 W. Highland Ave., sits between the corporate campuses for Harley-Davidson and Molson-Coors. The motorcycle company took an interest in funding improvements at the 3.4-acre park after it decided to develop a new $21.8 million community park called Davidson Park and event space called The Hub.

Davidson Park is being developed on what used to be surface parking lots on the southeast corner of the Harley corporate campus. The corporate community park will be directly adjacent to Harley Park. April Gianeselli, vice president of the Harley-Davidson Foundation, previously said the company will make The Hub open and available to the community like a public park.

Davidson Park will include some play structures for children, but the crown jewel of the park will be The Hub: a sunken event space similar to a public amphitheater. Construction of The Hub was previously expected to be completed this spring, though Harley-Davidson does not yet have an opening date.

Parks has cleaned up the forested area of Harley Park and removed a thick growth of shrubbery and invasive species. The department will eventually use the funding from the foundation on improvements like a park pavilion, new pathways and lighting.

Harley Park

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The Hub

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Renderings

Update: Story is updated to reflect that the corporate community park is called Davidson Park.