Minneapolis-based Premier Restaurant Management Inc. plans to open an upscale sports bar on North Old World Third Street in downtown Milwaukee. The company is also looking for other sites in downtown Milwaukee and the suburbs to open four additional restaurants
Minneapolis-based Premier Restaurant Management Inc., which owns 15 restaurants, most in the Twin Cities area, plans to open an upscale sports bar called Bootleggers on North Old World Third Street in downtown Milwaukee.
The company is also looking for other sites in downtown Milwaukee and the suburbs to open additional restaurants, according to co-owner, president and chief executive officer Bob Carlson.
Premier Restaurant Management plans to purchase the two-story, 9,360-square-foot building at 1023-27 N. Old World Third St. from Daniel Druml, who is the Milwaukee franchisee of Paul Davis Restoration and bought the building last year. The building had been occupied for years by Mader’s Old World Third Street Gallery. The store closed when Druml bought the building.
Later this month, the Common Council will review Premier Restaurant Management’ request for tavern licenses.
Carlson said his company is paying about $800,000 to purchase the Old World Third Street building and will spend another $2.2 million to renovate it into Bootleggers.
Bootleggers "is basically a high-end sports bar with live entertainment," Carlson said. It will also have a rooftop patio, which Carlson said will be a big attraction. The menu will include appetizers, pizza, burgers and sandwiches.
Premier Restaurant Management also owns nine Major’s Sports Café sports bars (eight are located in the Twin Cities suburbs and one is located in suburban Indianapolis). The company is looking for two suburban Milwaukee locations for Major’s Sports Café, Carlson said.
The company also is looking for two more downtown Milwaukee locations, one to open a steakhouse and another for a Stella’s Fish Cafe seafood restaurant, Carlson said. Premier Restaurant Management owns Stella’s Fish Cafe in Minneapolis.
"We’re looking for sites," Carlson said. "If we don’t find find good sites we won’t do it. When great sites come up, we do the deal."
Bootleggers could open in late May or early June. It would be the latest addition to a changing and revitalizing Old World Third Street.
Tutto, an Italian restaurant, opened recently at 1033 N. Old World Third St.
Jack Schaefer plans to open Milwaukee Brat House in the former Visions Sports Bar location at 1013 N. Old World Third St.
Seattle-based Restaurants Unlimited Inc. plans to open a Kincaid’s Fish, Chop and Steakhouse in the former Third Street Pier space at 1110 N. Old World Third St.
Developers for three projects planned for the intersection of Old World Third Street and Juneau Avenue are hoping to break ground this year.
Milwaukee-based Ruvin Development Inc. and Dallas-based Gatehouse Capital Corp. plan to build a 176-room Kimpton Hotel, 70 luxury condominiums, 55,000 square feet of office space and 17,000 square feet of street level retail space, northwest of Old World Third Street and Juneau Avene.
At the northeast corner of intersection, they play to build a 160-room Aloft Hotel by W, 9 condominiums, parking for the condominiums, banquet space and 5,000 square feet of street level retail space.
At the southwest corner of Old World Third Street and Juneau Avenue, developer Rick Barrett plans to build The Moderne, a 30-story building that could include a 120-room hotel.
"We think Old World Third (Street) has tremendous opportunity for growth," Carlson said.
The new developments are joining several established bar and restaurants in the Old World Third Street entertainment district, which include Mader’s restaurant, Old German Beer Hall, Have a Nice Day Café, African Hut, Buck Bradley’s, Vecchio Bar and Grille, Lucille’s Rockin’ Pianos and Buckhead Saloon.
The street’s proximity to the Bradley Center is also a plus, Carlson said. The Bradley Center also is working to attract more development to the neighborhood. In December, ending approximately a yearlong search, the Bradley Center announced that it has selected Indianapolis-based Lauth Property Group as its partner to help develop the vacant land around the downtown Milwaukee sports and entertainment facility. The Bradley Center, located at 1001 N. Fourth St., owns about six acres of developable land to the north and has some vacant land adjacent to the building at the corner of North Sixth and State streets. Larry Evinger, first vice president of retail development for Lauth and a former resident of the Milwaukee area, said the development team envisions a mix of retail and restaurant businesses that will make the Bradley Center more of a year-round destination.
