See Inside Landmark Credit Union Live Concert Venue
$70 million, 4,500-capacity, downtown venue hosts first event Wednesday evening.
Landmark Credit Union Live. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Milwaukee’s newest concert venue is ready to rock.
Music industry giant Live Nation and its subsidiary FPC Live showed off their newly completed $70 million complex, Landmark Credit Union Live, Wednesday morning.
The 4,500-person venue at 1051 N. Vel R. Phillips Ave. aims to fill a gap Live Nation sees in the market for midsize venues that can accommodate largely standing crowds.
“This capacity of venue fills what we think is a real sweet spot,” said Andrew Newport, regional vice president of operations for Live Nation. “If you look at all the bands that are out on the road today, what you’ll see in the 3,000 to 5,000 capacity, you don’t have a lot of rooms in America, much less in Milwaukee, that fill that need.”
Newport said a number of bands that could sell out smaller venues are likely to perform at Landmark Credit Union Live, where they can sell more tickets.
“It brings a state-of-the-art, built-from-the-ground-up venue to downtown Milwaukee, and it also recognizes the deep and rich history of live entertainment in Milwaukee,” said FPC CEO Joel Plant.
The first event, a ticketed preview night with a variety of local arts, will take place Wednesday night. The first concert, by alternative band Rainbow Kitten Surprise, is scheduled for Friday night. The public can get a sneak peek of the venue during a $25 ticket sale Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m.
Two-thirds of the capacity is found on the general admission ground floor, where a recessed pit will allow several hundred people to be close to the stage, while a raised area wraps the pit and will accommodate larger crowds with sight lines over those in front. Three bars line the perimeter, as does a TYME Machine photo booth, a nod to the complex’s naming rights partner.
The U-shaped upper level, which covers everything except the pit and stage, seats approximately 1,500. There are center box seats, the closest of which are only 70 feet from the stage, bar-stool seats along drinking railings and lots of traditional stadium seats.
Premium seat holders have access to the Vinyl Room, a private restaurant and bar that overlooks the Deer District plaza. The space features posters, album covers and more from Milwaukee-based bands or famous Milwaukee concerts. An additional premium amenity level, on the third floor, includes an outdoor patio and private bar.
“This building was built so that concert fans have options,” said Plant. “You want to be in the front row, you can do that. You want to be on the main level standing room with your friends, you can do that. And upstairs, there’s a variety of options for seating.”
Newport said special emphasis has been placed on the audio-visual experience. “Not only is that important to the artist, we want them to sound and look great, but that translates directly to the fan’s experience,” he said. “If you can’t hear your favorite singer, it’s going to be a rough night. So sound and audio are without question state of the art.”
FPC and Live Nation also don’t want you to just get a drink when you’re at the show; there is a full food lineup.
A Wisconsin-tailored menu includes a lineup of bratwurst from Texas-based Koko’s Bavarian, a sausage-and-pepperoni pasty from Sheboygan Pasty Co., and soft pretzels. “In each of these venues, we try to do a local item that speaks to what the market is,” said Ryan Derieux, Live Nation head of culinary, of the pasty. The Vinyl Room menu, said Derieux, leans into Asian influences to mirror the spread of listening lounges from Japan.
Live Nation designed the menu, but the venue will be staffed with personnel from concessionaire Levy, consistent with the neighboring Fiserv Forum.
The venue is expected to host about 70 shows per year, as well as rent the venue or portions of it out for corporate or nonprofit events.
The green room is a suite of spaces, including a private deck, for artists and their teams to prepare for a show.
“Without an artist, we don’t have a very good business model, so it’s pretty important for us that those folks come in here and they feel welcomed, not only in the building, but that the building is representative of the market,” said Newport.
A series of private rooms line a central room with a kitchenette and couches. Various art pieces make it clear that you’re in Milwaukee.
“This is to make the artist’s day as comfortable and easy and relaxing as possible as they get ready for the show,” said Plant.
Both Plant and Newport emphasized that the green room is designed to mirror a high-end hotel.
The hallway leading to the suite of private rooms is painted with a mural designed to look like sheet music. Plant said the vision is for performing bands to sign the wall and create a “living piece of history.”
Just outside of the dressing rooms, a private friends-and-family room includes a window directly down onto the stage.
Newport said special attention was also paid to back-of-the-house functions like making loading and unloading easy and creating welcoming catering spaces. “Very sexy stuff in the music business,” he said. “These folks travel with anywhere from 30 to 50, 60 people, and their experience is of equal importance as the artists’ themselves, because those are the folks that are going to represent us to their artists and ‘What markets or buildings should we play again? Who is accommodating? Who’s not?’ … Silly things like new showers are a big deal when you live on a bus.”
The venue went through several rounds of public review before construction began. It was first proposed as a two-venue complex in 2021 for a site in the Historic Third Ward in partnership with Summerfest-host Milwaukee World Festival, Inc., but then shifted to the Milwaukee Bucks‘ Deer District area later that year. It received design approval, despite objections, in late 2022, but cost increases forced it to be downsized to a single larger venue in 2023, and a second design approval was granted for an “inflation-adjusted” venue.
Smaller shows that would have used the 800-person venue once planned as a secondary space can be accommodated, said Newport, by curtaining off portions of the second level and adding chairs to the first level to create a more intimate space.
Art is infused throughout the venue, including murals by Taylor Berman, a drum wall that is intended as an homage to Lake Emily (Drum’s Hollow), a geographic feature once found where Northwestern Mutual now stands, and several framed drawings.
Without great fanfare, construction began in May 2024 atop the former Bradley Center site. The project then had to pause for an unusual reason: Its proximity to Fiserv Forum required a halt during the 2024 Republican National Convention. A “going vertical” ceremony was held in October 2024. The front door of the venue now faces the Fiserv Forum plaza and the pedestrianized W. Highland Avenue.
The space that the second venue would have used remains an available development site along N. Vel R. Phillips Ave. It is owned by an entity affiliated with the Milwaukee Bucks.
To the south, NCG Hospitality is planning to develop a 156-room Moxy Hotel. Initial permits to start construction have been filed.
The western portion of the Bradley Center site, 520 W. State St., remains available for future development.
A one-block private street on the west side of the venue restores N. 5th Street to the street grid. The privately owned and constructed street is intended for loading the venue. It has not existed since the Bradley Center was built in the 1980s.
Opposition to the FPC Live venue came primarily from individuals with ties to other concert promoters and individuals concerned with Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s market dominance. Live Nation, the largest concert promoter in the world, merged with Ticketmaster in 2010. It then acquired Madison-based competitor Frank Productions in 2018 and created FPC Live. The U.S. Department of Justice and 24 states sued to break up the company in 2024 over antitrust concerns and the case is still proceeding.
Photos
Vinyl Room
Exterior
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