Roughly five months after breaking ground, construction on downtown Milwaukee’s newest live music venue is making progress toward its late 2025 target opening.
Madison-based concert promoter FPC Live is developing the 4,500-spectator capacity venue directly south of Fiserv Forum in Deer District, on the northeast corner of the vacant lot once occupied by the Bradley Center.
FPC Live and the Milwaukee Bucks invited the media on Wednesday to a construction update on the nearly $70 million project that is “one of the largest private investments in Milwaukee’s entertainment scene,” said Joel Plant, CEO of FPC Live parent company Frank Productions.
Construction broke ground in late May and is expected to wrap up by fall 2025. Crews paused their work on the site for a couple of weeks in mid-July to accommodate the Republican National Convention. A grand opening date will be announced at a later date, said Plant.
With the building’s concrete foundation now in place, crews have begun setting steel on the structure. The foundation sits on 440 concrete piles driven 75 to 80 feet into the ground, said Andy Greco, senior project manager for Neenah-based Miron Construction, the project’s leading construction firm.
The building’s elevator shaft and stairwell have risen out of the ground and are now the most visible signs of vertical movement on the project, even from behind the construction fencing surrounding the site.
The venue’s 4,500-capacity ballroom will have general admission standing room areas as well as reserved and premium seating and will feature “modern amenities that both artists and fans have come to expect,” said Plant.
FPC Live originally proposed the project for the former Bradley Center site in May 2022 and underwent a contentious zoning approval process before project leaders scrapped their initial plans for a two venue facility in the face of increased construction costs and interest rates.
The venue will add 50 to 75 nights of activity to Deer District, which will ultimately translate to additional tourism and business at nearby restaurants and hotels, said Peter Feigin, president of the Milwaukee Bucks, which lead development of Deer District.
“This venue will be a major addition to Deer District for our city’s ever-thriving entertainment scene,” said Feigin.
The project also adds to the momentum in Deer District as the Bucks seek to develop its remaining available lots, including with a second hotel planned for the southeast portion of the Bradley Center site, on the corner of North Vel R. Phillips Avenue and West State Street. Details on that project are expected by the end of the month, said Michael Belot, chief real estate development officer for the Bucks.
When FPC Live decreased the scale of its project from two venues to one, it created a small commercial outlot, on what will be the east side of the building along North Vel R. Phillips Avenue, that the Bucks intend to develop for retail use. Belot said that’s still part of the plan.
“We’ve been actively marketing and promoting it, no news to announce, but there has been a lot of interest, especially now,” said Belot, pointing to ongoing progress on the music venue as well as the forthcoming hotel announcement.
At the northern end of the district, the Bucks are in talks with Chicago-based North Wells Capital to potentially build more than 200,000 square feet of office space just north of The Trade hotel, which opened in May 2023. In addition, Milwaukee-based commercial real estate firm J. Jeffers & Co. is moving ahead on planned mixed-use apartment development on a lot across Vel R. Phillips Avenue from The Trade, just west of the Aloft hotel.
