Council Approves Proposed Deer District Hotel

The Moxy Milwaukee Deer District hotel. Rendering by Gary Brink & Associates.

It’s a go.

A zoning change to enable development of a seven-story, 156-guest-room Moxy Hotel was approved Tuesday.

But not before area Alderman Robert Bauman made one last attempt to kill the proposal, which would be built on a portion of the former Bradley Center site, next to a new 4,500-person concert venue and a block from Fiserv Forum.

“I’m sure by now members of this body have spent more time with attorneys discussing land use than they ever have in their lives,” said Bauman in a speech tailored to court the votes of his council colleagues. The council’s zoning committee had already spent several hours reviewing the proposal, including two hours in closed session to review potential litigation.

While Bauman made explicit arguments that the hotel was not large enough or valuable enough for such a prominent site, the underlying issue is what happened with the other Deer District hotel, The Trade.

A failed union election, subject to a National Labor Relations Board investigation, has pit hotel developer NCG Hospitality against the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH). As a team affiliate did with The Trade, the Milwaukee Bucks would lease the property to NCG.

Many council members support MASH, but the city cannot reject the zoning change on the basis of a labor dispute at a different property.  So a proxy war ensued, with representatives of the MASH, NCG, the Bucks, construction trade groups, and Mayor Cavalier Johnson‘s administration making different arguments for the zoning change’s adoption or rejection.

“We can do better, we should do better and we have an obligation to all of the citizens in our neighborhoods… to maximize value where we can,” said Bauman on Tuesday, arguing that the council had the clear legal authority to reject the development because it was located within the boundaries of a tax incremental financing district used to subsidize Fiserv Forum and the Deer District’s development.

He said he was advised by assistant city attorney Joseph Dobbs that a motion he sought to make the zoning change expire in one year if the hotel was unbuilt was unlawful. The alderman expressed frustration that he wasn’t briefed on why that was the case. Bauman, several years ago, led the adoption of an ordinance change that requires all zoning changes for unbuilt projects to expire after five years.

But his arguments, which included explicit examples of how over-performing downtown TIF districts are used to subsidize central city development, failed to sway his colleagues.

The council approved a zoning change on a 12-1-1-1 vote, with Bauman objecting, Larresa Taylor abstaining and Andrea Pratt excused from the meeting.

Representatives of NCG, Milwaukee Bucks and several construction unions could be spotted in the council gallery. No MASH members were visible in the gallery.

Milwaukee Bucks attorney Bruce Block, during the May 6 Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee meeting, accused the city of acting in bad faith for resisting the project after it encouraged the Bucks to come forward with the hotel during the contentious debate around the FPC Live concert venue.

NCG and the Bucks need a zoning change to enable the hotel’s development on a portion of the former Bradley Center site, 430 W. State St., but a previously-approved general planned development designation for the area established that a hotel between four and 20 stories in height was appropriate.

Bauman said a hotel was appropriate, but not the limited-service Moxy proposal.

Moxy, part of Marriott Bonvoy family of brands, is positioned as a “playful, affordable, and stylish hotel brand designed to give guests everything they want and nothing they don’t.” The lobby and check-in desk operate as a bar.

The three-star Deer District proposal would mirror Madison, where NCG developed a Moxy hotel next to FPC’s 2,500-person The Sylvee venue on E. Washington Street.

But it would not include a rooftop bar and large banquet facility, both of which can be found at the four-star The Trade hotel, 420 W. Juneau Ave.

Brian Randall, an attorney for NCG, said last week that the company hopes to break ground by July 2026.

For more on the hotel’s design, see our coverage of the February City Plan Commission hearing. For more on The Trade union fight, see our coverage from early May.

Renderings

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