County Seeks Operator for Red Arrow Park Building

920 N. Water St. Photo by Sophie Bolich.

Milwaukee County Parks is looking for a new long-term operator of the concession building at Red Arrow Park.

For more than 20 years, the building has been operated as a coffee shop. Starbucks operated a location in the park for 20 years, leaving in 2023. The next year, a short-lived Biggby Coffee opened, closing in March of this year. Now the parks department is looking for a new operator, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be a coffee shop.

The department is looking for a business to lease and activate the 969-square-foot space year-round. It is “open to considering other businesses in this location that activate the space or are complementary to the park uses,” according to public bidding documents. If the business is open to the public, it must be accessible for children and must provide seating space for people renting ice skates.

The park is the location for the county’s popular downtown ice rink. During the summer, the concrete rink also doubles as a roller rink. Parks estimates there were more than 80,000 visitors to the park in 2025, including about 19,000 ice skaters.

The department is also working with the operator of the Estabrook Beer Garden, Hans Weissgerber III, on plans for a new beer garden in the park using the concession facility. In May, Weissgerber’s company, ABC Estabrook LLC, pulled permits from the City of Milwaukee for the new operation.

Weissgerber’s successful partnership with the county on the Estabrook Beer Garden launched a revival of beer gardens in Milwaukee County, which had largely vanished from the city’s landscape after Prohibition forced drinking establishments underground.

“We are very much interested in having ABC Estabrook operate in the concessions space at Red Arrow. From what we understand, there are some things that still need approval through the City of Milwaukee,” Jeffrey Orlowski, director of business services, told Urban Milwaukee.

Weissgerber’s beer garden would be a short-term offering, running until the end of March 2027. The long-term operator would take over the space in April 2027.