Deer District Concert Halls Okayed Again

Despite opposition, a new concert venue complex proposed for a vacant lot next to Fiserv Forum scored another endorsement. The Common Council is expected to cast a final vote on the proposal Nov. 1.

On Tuesday, the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development unanimously endorsed a zoning change for the proposal from Frank Productions, Live Nation and the Milwaukee Bucks to develop a two-hall live music venue on a portion of the former Bradley Center site. The complex would include 800 and 4,000-person venues targeted at primarily standing crowds.

The opposition to the proposal comes almost entirely from a coalition, Save MKE’s Music Scene, whose members have connections to competing venues. Its members have argued that the city is allowing an anti-competitive business, similar to Walmart, into the market. Project supporters have argued the new complex would serve an unmet segment of the market and grow the size of Milwaukee’s music scene.

“They call our group of venues monopolistic, but yet they’re Ticketmaster,” said Save MKE’s Music Scene attorney John Wirth of the Live Nation ticketing entity. Members of the coalition have previously argued the new venues would result in Live Nation-booked tours being steered into only the Live Nation-owned venue when artists visit Milwaukee.

“We are excited to make this big and bold investment in the city’s future,” said Frank President Joel Plant. “These two rooms fill a void in the Milwaukee market.”

The Department of City Development is recommending the council approve the zoning change based on its compliance with a 2015 general planned development zoning district for the entire Deer District development. Each individual building in the district is required to get council design approval as a result of the broader zoning district. “We have historically not used the zoning entitlement process to try to restrict competition,” said planning manager Sam Leichtling, referencing hotel and housing proposals.

“We are not the antitrust division of the City of Milwaukee,” said area Alderman Robert Bauman. “There is no subsidy for this project. I cannot be more clear about that.”

After a several-hour hearing before the City Plan Commission in September, the development team modified the proposed complex based on the commission’s feedback. It will still open up to the plaza in front of Fiserv Forum, but the building is no longer set back from N. Vel R. Phillips Ave. The setback was originally intended to allow a small commercial building to be constructed that would have covered a windowless wall.

“We took the technical issues raised by CPC and the city to heart and we made adjustments,” said Bucks President Peter Feigin. The revised proposal has a more activated facade along the east side, while a special loading area is created on the west side alongside a one-block private street the Bucks would build through the site. He said the new street was a $2 million investment on top of a $4 million investment to demolish the Bradley Center. Approximately two acres of land would remain to develop additional buildings at the site.

“This has worked out well to shift the building over and provide for this service corridor,” said architect Greg Uhen of Eppstein Uhen Architects. A merchandise store on the four-story complex’s first level is part of what now activates the eastern side. Other levels have open-air decks and windows. “There is a tremendous amount of activation on all levels.”

Uhen said the proposal also complies with one of the more subjective terms of the arena district’s 2015 zoning package: being “sympathetic” to Turner Hall. “As an architect what that means is we need to be sensitive, we need to be fitting, we need to respect the building,” he said. He said the size and design of the portion of the reconfigured building that touches Vel. R. Phillips Ave. lines up with the historic hall and encourages people to engage.

But representatives of Turner Hall aren’t so sure. Board members Art Heitzer and Chris Ahmuty asked for delays for further review of the design, with Ahmuty singling out the banners that are to be placed on the wall as not being well enough defined. Turner Hall Executive director Emilio De Torre asked for a delay for further evaluation of the traffic and safety plans which were submitted in the past week.

Others, including concert promoter Adam Peterman and Cactus Club owner Kelsey Kaufmann, asked for delays so other components of the proposal could be further reviewed. “Live Nation swallowed up Madison,” said Peterman of the new venues Frank and Live Nation constructed there through their FPC Live partnership.

Wirth, the opposition group’s attorney, took issue with the amended design. “You should decide that this is a substantial change and send it back to the Plan Commission,” he said.

But Leichtling and representatives of the City Attorney’s Office, the latter of which provided a written opinion that the council was acting within the law, disagreed.

“In some ways that happens all the time and I think that’s how the council wants the process to work,” said Leichtling of the design reviews made after commission feedback. He said the Plan Commission asked for the changes, including preliminary traffic safety plan. Assistant city attorney Tyler Helsel noted that no new affected parties were introduced by the modifications. Department of Public Works and Milwaukee Police Department representatives testified that they did not have concerns about the draft plans and were working through details.

Wirth could file suit over the specific change issue, though there is no indication at this point that the Plan Commission would change its mind.

After a string of questions by Alderman Scott Spiker and other council members to the administration representatives about various scenarios, Bauman interjected: “let’s not overthink this please.”

The committee ultimately heard more than two hours of testimony, almost all of it from people with some role in the $50 million project or Milwaukee’s music scene. That included representatives of the general contracting team of Miron Construction and JCP Construction and the labor group Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization, both of which announced labor agreements with FPC Live earlier this month.

“This would normally be a very easy decision,” said Bauman, noting it filled a vacant lot with a tax-paying development and was being built by union labor. “I mean every single base is touched by this project, and yet there seems to be doubt.”

He noted that the doubt came from people who were his friends and supporters, and they could even be right about the economic situation. But he said the council didn’t have enough information to figure out who was right. “The whole idea of regulating economic competition is something we don’t do and shouldn’t do because, frankly, we’re not good at it.”

The full council could still reject or delay the zoning change.

Revised Renderings – October 2022

September Renderings

August Renderings and Site Plan