Downsized Bucks entertainment center approved

Officials say new 2-floor plan will better utilize outdoor plaza

The future Milwaukee Bucks entertainment center’s revised design, which includes reducing the size of its main building from four floors to two floors, has received unanimous city Plan Commission approval.

With the change, the center’s building just south of W. Juneau Ave., east of N. 4th St., no longer has “a visual barrier” to the outdoor plaza between the facility and future Bucks arena, said Audry Grill, of Rinka Chung Architecture.

The entertainment center’s design still has a modern industrial theme, said Grill, a project director at the firm. The revised proposal will better activate the outdoor plaza, she told commission members Monday.

Missing from the building’s initial four-story design are the brewing kettles that its renderings included.

That raised a question from J. Allen Stokes, a commission member, about whether the entertainment center would include a craft brewery.

Blair Williams, who’s overseeing commercial development efforts for the Bucks, said the entertainment center’s tenants — which are to include restaurants and taverns — haven’t yet been finalized.

“I can guarantee there will be beer there,” Williams said.

But there’s no guarantee the center will include a brewery, he said.

Discussions with prospective tenants also include prospects for year-round programs at the outdoor plaza beyond Bucks and Marquette University basketball games, Williams said.

The entertainment center’s development has taken longer than expected.

While the new arena is expected to open in the fall of 2018, the entertainment complex isn’t to be completed until the spring of 2019.