Starting to feel — and smell — like an arena
You don’t need a coat to survive a walk through the new Milwaukee Bucks arena. And you don’t need much imagination to see what it’s going to feel like on an event day.
For the most part, the Bucks’ new
$524 million home is buttoned up and teeming with more than 800 construction workers. It’s fairly warm inside now that it’s been all-but-sealed from the elements.
Work is about 68% complete, said Jesse Kemp, senior project manager for Mortenson Construction, during a
media tour Friday morning. Mortenson is the construction manager for the arena project.
In the past several weeks, workers completed installing glass panels that rise about 100 feet, surrounding the east atrium that will be the arena’s main entrance. From the upper concourse, one can see the seating bowl, look down to the main entrance and the plaza and entertainment block taking shape outside the building.
That “transparency” is a key element of the new arena, with the goal of it being an easy-to-navigate facility, said Bucks President Peter Feigin.
It’s easy to see how fans will find their way to their seats, concession stands, several “meet up” areas and the new team store in the southeast street-level corner of the building.
Inside the seating bowl, workers have suspended from the rafters a halfdozen speakers that will surround the scoreboard. The LCD message board wrapping around the seating bowl is almost complete.
What will become the game floor is smoothed out, and most construction equipment is gone. Preparations are in place for the installation of the ice sheet that will be used by shows and possible NCAA hockey games.
The smell of paint and adhesives hang in the air, and much of the drywall in place. About 90% of the drywall has been hung, and sanding and finishing is underway, Kemp said.
“This is going up so fast that if you don’t stay on top of it you just have to back up,” Feigin said. “We don’t go forward with any details unless we’re completely satisfied.”
Hallways and stairwells are enclosed, and on the suite level the concourse is topped by a curvy accent.
On that level, too, is the smell of fresh carpet laid in a largely completed suite, which the Bucks and Mortenson are using to test out finishes and furnishings.
“We go into this one every week and tweak it,” Feigin said of the suite.
“We spent about a half hour the other day talking about tile in here,” said Kemp, and it was clear he was not joking. Price for the test model suite: $225,000 a year with a 10-year lease, Feigin said.
The team has sold 30 suites and four remain, including one that’s penciled in for the company that winds up buying the arena naming rights, he said.
There’s no news on the naming rights, other than that the Bucks are continuing to talk with prospective customers, Feigin said.
The Bucks plan to open the arena in the fall of 2018. They’ve already booked two concerts in September, including a Sept. 16 appearance of the pop group Maroon 5.
“That’s not going to be the first concert here,” said Raj Saha, the arena’s general manager, who is in charge of keeping the building humming on nonbasketball game days. Several additional concerts will be announced by the end of the year, he said.