Big Changes Coming to South Shore Park in 2025

Construction of a new beach at South Shore Park. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The popular beer garden in South Shore Park opens Friday, kicking off a year of change at the popular park in Bay View.

Several major projects, one of them more than a decade in the making, will come together this year in the Bay View park. There is a new playground that will be built over the summer, a new beach that will be open in time for summer and an important, if not exactly exciting, breakwater project should be finished by the end of the year.

Altogether, the projects represent well over $35 million in spending on the park, which is also a popular wedding destination and home to the South Shore Yacht Club.

“I think it’s going to be a more inviting Park, and it’s going to be a healthier park for a few reasons,” said Milwaukee County Parks Director Guy Smith.

First, there is the new South Shore Beach, which is being constructed 500 feet south of the former beach. The new location is intended to improve water circulation and reduce beach closings. In its original location, the beach faced a constant barrage of pollutants from bird droppings, sewer overflows and stormwater runoff.

Work on the project began under former supervisor and current alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, who advocated for a solution to the frequent beach closings. “That red flag that we all see is flying way too much,” she said in 2018.

The project has been in the works for more than a decade and involved a number of private and public partners, including the McLellan Lab at the UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences.

The project is part of the local Area of Concern initiative, aimed at remediating the pollution and restoring natural habitats around Milwaukee. In 2023, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) awarded the county an $8 million grant for the project.

This summer, likely by the end of June, Parks will begin work replacing the playground at South Shore. It was installed in 1996 and is one of the oldest in the system. Former supervisors and current state representative Ryan Clancy secured funding for the project in the 2022 budget, which was paired with fundraising by the Bay View Neighborhood Association.

“I‘m really excited to see some some investment in that space,” Clancy said. “Because, the previous playground, so many of us have raised our kids on it; it’s been loved to death by folks from all over the county.”

Another project Clancy pushed forward during the budget process is the repair of the northern breakwater. County Executive David Crowley included the funding needed to finish the project in his 2025 recommended budget.

In 2020, the breakwater was damaged by severe winter storms. When waves breached the protective barrier, they wreaked havoc on the nearby South Shore Yacht Club’s docks. Repair to the breakwater began in 2024 and is expected to finish this year. The breakwater will protect the park and the shoreline, Smith said. 

“There has been a history of positive advocacy to make these things work,” Smith said, with Bay View supervisors including Dimitrijevic, Clancy and Sup. Jason Haas pushing things forward at various points.

“It is the result of a generation of effort that will be enjoyed by generations to come,” said Jack Eckblad, who was elected in 2024 to replace Clancy on the board. “The parks department does really good work, when they’re allowed to. Period.”

Another investment in the park, one that is literally paying off, is the beer garden. South Shore Terrace opens Friday with a first pour at 4 p.m. The beer gardens have become a moneymaker for the department, which now generates more than 50% of its annual operating revenue through food and beverage sales, golf, rentals and other business services. Molson Coors, a sponsor of the South Shore Terrace, has donated approximately $600,000 in recent years to support parks.

The projects are coming together at South Shore thanks in part to the timing of grants and federal stimulus funds, with  the latter providing the county with budget stability since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parks frequently engages in long term planning, or “the long game” as Smith called it. Laying the groundwork so that when funding becomes available to the department is ready to go. South Shore Park, and the beach in particular, are just the latest example.

“Pardon our dust for a little bit here,” Smith said. “But the the the results that we’re going to have from these projects are going to last for years.”

Breakwater

Playground

Beach

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