Downtown Dog Park Opens

Downtown Dog Park, 103 W. Clybourn St. Photo taken Aug. 20, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

The first off-leash dog park in Downtown Milwaukee opened to the public Wednesday.

The new dog park is the result of a long running effort to bring a dog park downtown. The project was led by Matt Dorner, CEO of Milwaukee Downtown, Business Improvement District #21, and Paul Schwartz, executive director of the Historic Third Ward, Business Improvement District #2. It officially began in 2020 with a fundraising campaign and a plan for a $350,000 project. But the complexity of the site led the partners to expand the scope of the project to what it is today.

“We’ve had an opportunity to reimagine one of the key access points in the downtown Milwaukee, a previously underutilized site,” Dorner said. “Now it’s gonna be a beautiful public space that’s gonna be activated. We’re strengthening the connections between the historic Third Ward, Milwaukee Downtown and Walker’s Point.”

The $2 million dog park was built on an empty gravel lot underneath an elevated portion of Interstate 794 at 103 W. Clybourn St. Most of the dog park sits underneath the freeway. The 23,000-square-foot space has two designated areas, one for small dogs and another for larger dogs. It was designed by GRAEF and constructed by Berghammer Construction Corporation.

The project has a long list of supporters, but Fromm Family Foods, a Mequon pet food company, agreed to become the title sponsor for the project. Just to the south, adjacent to the dog park, Fromm is developing Foxtown Landing, a distillery, pub, restaurant, cocktail lounge and ballroom event center expected to open in 2027.

The City of Milwaukee is spending $3 million to extend the riverwalk past the dog park and Foxtown Landing.

Ald. Robert Bauman, who represents Downtown on the Milwaukee Common Council, noted that residential development, and downtown living, has increased during the two decades he’s been in office.

“But one of the things that’s always been lacking, and one of the things that I repeatedly heard from a lot of residents and new residents is, ‘Where’s the dog park?’.”

Mayor Cavalier Johnson issued two mayoral proclamations, one each for Schwartz and Dorner, celebrating them as “downtown dog park heroes” for their “tireless efforts” developing the new dog park. The mayor called the park an “incredible, incredible addition to Milwaukee” and said the project is ensuring the downtown area has the amenities people want when they move here.

“People are choosing Milwaukee. People with pets are choosing Milwaukee,” the mayor said.

The dog park will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and, like county dog parks, will require a dog park license for entry.