A special committee of the Wisconsin Center District board on Friday kicked off what is expected to be a monthslong review of a controversial recommendation to replace the Miller High Life Theatre with a new convention headquarters hotel.
Committee members were generally receptive to the recommendation by Chicago-based consultant Hunden Partners that Milwaukee needs a new convention headquarters hotel to fully capitalize on the recent expansion of the Baird Center and remain competitive for large events.
However, the specific site for the recommended 650-room hotel and how to finance it are, unsurprisingly, proving to be sticking points.
Milwaukee County comptroller Liz Sumner, who is chairing the special committee, said the group is working to answer four primary questions: Does Milwaukee need to pursue a convention center hotel? Where should it be located? Is the Wisconsin Center District the right catalyst to get a hotel sited, financed and built? And is there a different or better catalyst?
The committee heard from Steve Haemmerle and Matt Avila of Hunden Partners, who emphasized that their analysis is intended to inform long-term strategy rather than dictate a specific development project.
“We were looking at this at a macro level, trying to frame up data and information to allow you all to make the right long-term decision,” Haemmerle said.
In 2025, the Baird Center hosted 1.1 million visitors, up from about 780,000 in 2024, which consultants said demonstrates strong demand. But the report found that 18% of the convention business Milwaukee lost between 2024 and 2027 was attributed to insufficient hotel room supply, based on data from Visit Milwaukee.
“There’s some cities that really have great convention packages,” Avila said. “We are competing in an industry where it’s cutthroat.”
Hunden representatives pointed to cities such as Columbus and Louisville, which Milwaukee often competes with for conventions, that have recently added or are planning to add convention headquarters hotels.
“Headquarter hotel inventory around these convention centers we like to say is almost an arms race,” Avila said.
Downtown Milwaukee’s hotel occupancy for 2025 sat at around 62%, which Avila described as “stable” but not strong. Still, Hunden argues that a new convention headquarters hotel would boost business at other hotels downtown, which Aliva said has occurred in other markets that have added new convention headquarters hotels.
Avila pointed to data from other markets that showed average daily revenue per room of hotels within walking distance from the convention center increased from $141 to $149 after a new hotel opened, with an increase of $108 to $114 for secondary downtown hotels.
Local hotel owners like Greg Marcus of Marcus Corp. have argued that the downtown Milwaukee hotel market is not strong enough to absorb hundreds of new rooms and that additional supply could dilute occupancy and room rates at existing properties.
Hunden evaluated six potential sites for a downtown Milwaukee convention headquarters hotel. The highest-ranking options were the High Life Theatre site and the neighboring UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena site, based on connectivity to the convention center, site size, development efficiency and the ability to create a more vibrant, pedestrian-friendly district with added green space and retail.
Ultimately, Hunden recommended the High Life Theatre site because the Panther Arena is an important community asset that provides affordable entertainment options.
“We do work in other communities, and they would love to have an asset like that,” Haemmerle said.
Further, Hunden argues that the High Life Theatre is vulnerable to competition from the new Landmark Credit Union Live music venue in Deer District, which has a similar capacity. Gary Witt, CEO of Pabst Theater Group, which is the exclusive marketer of the High Life Theatre, has disputed that, saying the venues cater to different markets.
Any plan involving the High Life Theatre, however, could be held up by a recent decision by the Milwaukee Common Council to designate the building as historic, which would require approval to demolish it or make exterior modifications.
The committee asked only a handful of questions at the meeting, other than Ald. Bob Bauman, who reaffirmed his opposition to the recommended site and questioned why the vacant city-owned site at Vel R. Phillips and Wisconsin avenues wasn’t selected as it could offer the same connectivity to the Baird Center.
“I’ll tell you, reading this over, it seems to me that your thumb was on the scale,” Bauman said to Hunden’s representatives, who maintained they are agnostic about the final location.
“There are trade offs in developing real estate,” Haemmerle said.
Bauman also questioned why the report did not identify financing models for the recommended project, which experts have said would certainly include a large public subsidy.
Sumner asked for more details on how convention headquarters hotels in competing cities were financed to be considered at future committee meetings.
Experts have estimated the hotel component of the project would cost between $200 million and $300 million, with the project’s additional components like meeting space, retail and apartments pushing the price tag to upwards of $500 million.
Sumner said future meetings may include additional input from Visit Milwaukee, Baird Center staff and others.
The committee is scheduled to hold three more meetings before delivering a recommendation to the full Wisconsin Center District board in May.
