Longtime employee of Milwaukee Downtown, Business Improvement District (BID) #21, Matt Dorner will take the helm of the organization this summer as its new chief executive officer, which Dorner says is a position that feels like it’s in his DNA.
Dorner will replace Beth Weirick, who has led the BID since its founding in 1998.
“Over the last decade, I have witnessed firsthand Matt’s passion for downtown Milwaukee,” said Weirick.
Dorner joined the BID in 2014 to lead economic development efforts, currently serving as economic development director.
BizTimes recently spoke with Dorner on the transition process, his outlook on downtown Milwaukee and the BID’s role in it. Following are portions of the conversation:
Did you always envision yourself with the BID long term and one day leading it?
“It’s such a perfect fit. It really does align with my passion for the economic development of downtown, its real estate community. In the very beginning, joining the organization and being able to observe and learn from Beth as a leader was impactful for me. Now, it’s a perfect fit. It feels like it’s in my DNA to work for downtown Milwaukee, the city that I love so passionately.”
How did BID leadership decide that you were the best fit to fill the CEO position?
“I’m extremely happy with Beth to be able to sort of execute her plan the way that she wanted to, the way that she envisioned it. We think this was the right fit moving forward in terms of continuing our strong framework and foundation internally, and providing continuity and stability with our partners. I’m really thrilled that leadership saw this as the best path forward for the organization as a whole.”
What’s one word you’d use to describe your outlook on downtown Milwaukee right now?
“Vibrant. I truly believe that downtown is the vibrant heart of our region, and that’s on the backs of so many positive investments whether it be adding employers to downtown like Milwaukee Tool or Enerpac, delivering a couple of the tallest residential buildings in the state’s history, expansion of the Baird Center and our hospitality and entertainment offerings. It really is the vibrant hub for living, working, socializing.”
How are you approaching the new role? Is there anything about the organization you’re looking to change?
“We just recently completed our five-year strategic plan, where we check in with a lot of our stakeholders, our board, and a lot of our existing programs are really fundamental to the continued momentum that we see in downtown Milwaukee. Coming into the role, it really is about doubling down on our ‘clean, safe and friendly’ initiatives with our public service ambassadors, our Clean Sweep ambassadors, our graffiti removal teams, and the like.
“The BID has also got much more actively involved in a few of our public space projects. I’m looking forward to continuing to convene all of our partners that are doing great work in our downtown public spaces. I think there’s opportunities there in the future as well to find areas we can support. In the near future, we’ll be working on the redesign for Red Arrow Park.
“As we continue to look at downtown, it’s important for, obviously, vehicular travel traffic, to move through, but also, as we continue to try to enhance walkability. We’ve been involved and supportive of some of the projects have taken place like the protected bike lanes on Van Buren, some improvements on Michigan Street, the city’s currently engaged in a redesign for Water Street as well. We know that people on sidewalks, those are the ones that patronize businesses, and so whatever we can do to continue to support those efforts we’ll continue to do.”
Did the strategic plan find any room for new initiatives or programs for the BID to roll out?
“In early 2025, we plan to relaunch a retail and storefront strategy, so taking a look at innovative ways to tackle some of our vacant storefronts. We’ve had some momentum with new storefronts being opened like a couple of new ones coming to Jefferson Street in recent and coming months, but there still are some key vacancies. The BID is going to refresh its strategy on that front and take a closer look at these spaces again and figure out what approaches could work.
“There was a retail recruiter more than a decade ago that was employed by the BID, but with economic shifts and different things that were taking place at that time, the position molded more into a general economic development position. It has been some time since we’ve looked at it, so certainly if some small business is looking at a potential space, we’re involved in trying to help them, whether we pair them with city incentives, or we have our own business development loan pool program that I started when I started with the BID.”
