New MSO concert hall paves way
$89 million facility will have huge impact on downtown’s west side
It was nearly 20 years ago that the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra — eager to claim its own venue — performed at downtown’s Warner Grand Theatre for a handful of sound engineers.
That test demonstrated the movie theater’s ideal acoustics for orchestra concerts. And the prospect of reviving the long-vacant historic landmark was looming large on West Wisconsin Avenue, where the building dominates much of the block between North Second and North Old World Third streets.
Both physical and fiscal challenges kept the project on the drawing board.
Now, it’s finally happening: An $89 million investment is coming to an area that for many years has lagged downtown’s overall development pace.
“We really do believe this is a game changer on West Wisconsin Avenue,” said city Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux. “It really does bring everything together.”
The symphony’s new performance and rehearsal center, including its administrative offices, will open in fall 2020 at 212 W. Wisconsin Ave. The orchestra now performs at the Marcus
“It should make downtown a more viable place for young people, and people of all stripes, to live.” Joel Brennan, Discovery World president and a Wisconsin Center District board member
Center for the Performing Arts, with its offices at a separate downtown location.
The conversion of the cinema is among a series of nearby projects.
The Grand Avenue shopping center, located just across the street, continues its redevelopment into a food hall, apartments and offices.
Meanwhile, former office buildings on or near West Wisconsin Avenue are being transformed into apartments. And Wisconsin Center District officials are considering a convention center expansion, which could include a new hotel.
Toss in the new Milwaukee Bucks arena, located four blocks north of the avenue, as well as other projects, and you’re seeing an unprecedented level of investment on downtown’s west side.
The new symphony hall ranks among downtown’s most important developments, Marcoux said. “It’s a huge project,” he said.
The concert hall “could have a sustained impact for the next 15 to 20 years,” said Joel Brennan, Discovery World president and a Wisconsin Center District board member.
“It should make downtown a more viable place for young people, and people of all stripes, to live,” said Brennan, a former Department of City Development official.
Symphony officials are singing the same tune. The project will “breathe new life into that stretch of Wisconsin Avenue,” said Andy Nunemaker, symphony board chair. He’s also chief executive officer at West Allis software maker Dynamis Corp.
The prep work to create the new symphony hall has already started. The groundbreaking ceremony will be at 11 a.m. Thursday.
The plans includes a glassy, two-story lobby addition at the site of the former Kiku restaurant, 202 W. Wisconsin Ave., which is being demolished.
The theater’s back wall will be moved around 30 feet east, onto North Second Street, to accommodate a bigger stage.
Also, the building will be expanded north to provide more space for dressing rooms, loading docks and other uses. That three-story annex will use part of a parking lot that will double as a construction staging area.
Finally, five floors from the 12-story office building next to the symphony hall will be converted into a private room for orchestra patrons, warm-up space for the symphony chorus, a sheet music library and the orchestra’s administrative offices.
The remaining floors will be set aside for future uses.
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's new concert hall will bring an $89 million investment to downtown's West Wisconsin Avenue — an area that has other major developments in the works. The hall will open in fall 2020 at the renovated and expanded Warner Grand Theatre. KAHLER SLATER ARCHITECTS
Filling a void
The theater opened in 1931 and closed in 1995. The attached office building also has been empty for several years.
Together, they created a large void on Wisconsin Avenue during a period when much of downtown landed new housing, hotels and other commercial developments — mainly east of the Milwaukee River.
Downtown’s west side lagged that pace until recent years — with the empty cinema playing a role in discouraging investment.
“I would say the vacancy of the Grand Theatre has probably been more of a detriment than anything else along that stretch of Wisconsin Avenue,” Marcoux said.
Along with preserving a historic building, the new symphony hall will typically draw around 6,000 visitors each weekend, said Mark Niehaus, orchestra president and executive director.
The symphony also plans to lease out the hall for other events. Niehaus said that would likely include a partnership with Pabst Theater Group, which counts the nearby Riverside Theatre among its venues.
The Warner Grand Theatre’s redevelopment will help other nearby projects, including the Grand Avenue’s conversion efforts, said Tony Janowiec, Grand Avenue co-owner.
The new symphony hall “is probably the most catalytic project” on downtown’s west side, said Janowiec, who operates Interstate Development Partners LLC.
“It is really invaluable to the neighborhood,” said Janowiec, who plans to attract symphony patrons for parking and dining at the Grand Avenue.
The new concert hall’s opening will mark the end of a 20-year journey.
It started in 2000. The symphony performed on a makeshift plywood stage at the Warner Grand to test the acoustics — which proved superior to those at the Marcus Center.
“Listening to the music in that room is incredibly intimate,” said Niehaus, then a Milwaukee Symphony trumpet player.
But the project didn’t proceed.
There were doubts among community members about whether the symphony needed its own facility.
Also, city officials had concerns about extending the east wall on to North Second Street — then a key route for connecting rush hour traffic to I-794.
The Milwaukee Art Museum’s newly finished Quadracci Pavilion had “sucked up” most of the local private funds for the arts, Niehaus said.
Since then, Nunemaker, Niehaus and other symphony officials have built a case for their own venue.
Better calendar
They say the symphony runs an operating deficit at the Marcus Center mainly because the orchestra’s performance schedule must compete with other events. Those include the Broadway at the Marcus Center series and performances by Milwaukee Ballet and Florentine Opera.
In its new symphony hall, the orchestra will offer dozens of additional performances and enjoy more favorable dates, including holiday season slots. It will be able to schedule additional high-profile guest artists.
The new facility also will provide a more intimate concert experience, with 1,750 seats, compared with 2,300 at the Marcus Center.
Meanwhile, the redesigned Marquette Interchange and I-794 largely eliminated North Second Street’s role in funneling rush hour traffic to the freeway. And fundraising for Quadracci Pavilion is done.
The orchestra renewed its drive for a new venue after Niehaus was named symphony president in 2012.
Meanwhile, real estate attorney Steve Chernof had started leading efforts to redevelop West Wisconsin Avenue. That included ideas about reviving the Warner Grand Theatre.
Niehaus also was thinking about the Warner Grand. He contacted George Meyer, chief executive officer at Kahler Slater Inc., which in 2001 had done preliminary architectural work on the cinema’s possible conversion to a concert hall.
Meyer contacted Chernof.
And that led Chernof, a partner at Godfrey and Kahn, and Robert Monnat, chief operating officer at development firm Mandel Group Inc., to begin working with the symphony on securing control of the cinema and the neighboring Kiku restaurant building. There are concerns about the project.
The Marcus Center, owned by Milwaukee County, will lose a tenant that accounts for around 8 percent of its annual revenue.
“We prefer that they stay. But we respect their decision to go,” said Paul Mathews, president and chief executive officer of the Marcus Center.
Mathews hopes to land a few more Broadway shows, which now account for 27 percent of the Marcus Center’s revenue.
The symphony’s departure also creates more flexibility for the Milwaukee Ballet, the Florentine Opera, the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra and other organizations to get better dates, and additional dates, he said.
But there will be short-term “revenue challenges,” Mathews said.
Also, the symphony’s large investment comes with risk — mainly the possibility that the orchestra falls short on its fundraising target, according to Susan Loris, executive vice president for institutional advancement for the symphony.
“While our benefactors have been extremely generous, our campaign is not complete,” she said. “We are still actively engaging with benefactors who share in our vision.”
The construction cost estimate rose from $80 million to $89 million when the project’s scope increased by adding the office building renovations. That work was initially scheduled as part of a later phase.
The symphony’s revised fundraising goal is $139 million, up from $120 million. The orchestra so far has raised $106 million.
Aside from the construction costs, the orchestra is raising $50 million to retire its pension debt, strengthen its endowment and cover its growing operating deficit — which is tied to being at the Marcus Center.
The orchestra’s new performance center should allow it to break even, eliminating its annual losses, Niehaus said.
The Milwaukee Symphony’s construction tab is much less than the costs for other orchestra facilities built from the ground up in the last decade or so, Nunemaker said.
That includes Nashville, Tenn., where the Schermerhorn Symphony Center opened in 2006 at a cost of $123.5 million.
Milwaukee is catching a break in part because the Warner Grand Theatre was well maintained by longtime operator Marcus Corp., which also donated its share of the property, symphony officials said.
“We’re getting a bargain,” Nunemaker said.