Fiserv Forum’s first anniversary marks big impact on city
With $36 million in new property values, other development spin-offs in the works and an increase in events, the momentum from Fiserv Forum’s opening a year ago continues to roll through Milwaukee.
The $524 million arena, helped by $250 million in public financing, has been much more than a basketball court.
Fiserv Forum hosted 133 events, including 70 Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette University Golden Eagles games, as well as concerts, comedy shows and other events, in its first year.
The downtown arena’s outdoor plaza, along with being active during game days and concerts, has hosted other events, including this weekend’s Chords & Curds Festival featuring local music and food.
Meanwhile, five neighboring commercial developments directly tied to Fiserv Forum have so far created over $36 million in new property values. Two new hotels and a large office building also could be coming to sites next to the arena.
Finally, it will be the main venue for the July 2020 Democratic National Convention.
That will bring 50,000 visitors to southeastern Wisconsin and raise the profile of both Fiserv Forum and Milwaukee — which has other major construction projects occurring throughout downtown.
Bucks and forum President Peter Feigin expects to see even more happening in the future.
“I think the ultimate goal is to have this area active 365 days a year,” Feigin said.
“People would say, ‘Is that plausible?’ Yes, it is,” he said.
To be sure, that’s a long-term goal. For now, Feigin expects Fiserv Forum to annually host around 180 events, including basketball games.
But the arena, with its increased activity over the former BMO Harris Bradley Center, will continue driving downtown development, said Feigin and others.
“Larger office users will now consider this area and wouldn’t have in the absence of Fiserv Forum,” said William Bonifas, executive vice president in the Milwaukee office of CBRE Inc., a global commercial real estate services provider.
The arena “is really making it more viable,” he said.
Also, hotel operators, apartment developers and other investors are being drawn to the area.
Hotel owners Karl Rajani and Patrick Prabhu in May bought a three-story former warehouse at 419 W. Vliet St., two blocks north of the arena.
They plan to eventually convert the vacant historic building into a boutique hotel with around 50 rooms.
That proposal, which has received city approval, “was entirely predicated on Fiserv Forum,” Rajani said.
“Without it, we would not have undertaken the project,” he said.
Meanwhile, local developers Joshua Jeffers and Tony Janowiec plan to buy and redevelop the Journal Sentinel’s underused buildings, 333 W. State St.
They have declined to comment, but their plans could include apartments, offices and street-level retail for the site. It’s one block south of Fiserv Forum.
Privately financed developments directly tied to Fiserv Forum have so far well out-ranked the minimal economic impact generated by the Bradley Center’s 1988 opening.
The new projects include five developments owned by investment groups affiliated with the Bucks main owners: Marc Lasry, Wesley Edens and Jamie Dinan.
Two projects, Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin Sports Science Center (the Bucks practice facility) and Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin McKinley Health Center, are next to each other in the 1200 block of North Sixth Street. They opened in 2017, with combined property values totaling over $31 million.
The Bucks entertainment center, just across the plaza from Fiserv Forum, was completed in May. It was assessed last year, while still under construction, at just over $4 million.
Also, the retail space in the new arena parking structure is valued at $442,600. It hasn’t yet landed any tenants.
Finally, Five Fifty Ultra Lofts, with 104 apartments just west of the parking structure, begins opening units in September. It was only partially built when valued last year at $832,800 — an amount that will increase substantially.
At least three other nearby major projects could be added to that list.
The developers of Hyatt Place at the Brewery, a 150-room hotel at 800 W. Juneau Ave., Milwaukee Brewing Co., 1128 N. 9th St., and Vim & Vigor, two apartment building totaling 274 units at 926 W. Juneau Ave. and 1003 W. Winnebago St., all cited the arena project as a factor in announcing their plans in 2016.
All opened between summer 2018 and this spring in the former Pabst Brewing Co. complex, now known as The Brewery.
The developments done by the Bucks owners are on parcels in the former Park East Freeway strip that Milwaukee County gave to the group as part of the 2015 public financing package.
Head of the Herd Real Estate Development LLC, which is operated by the Bucks’ main owners, is pursuing conceptual plans for additional projects on its remaining Park East parcels, as well as the former Bradley Center site.
At the earliest, construction at those sites won’t begin until after the Democratic National Convention next summer. Those parcels will likely be used for staging areas, as well as hospitality sites, for the DNC.
But the latest conceptual plans, released in March, are starting to draw specific proposals, Feigin said.
Most of the interest revolves around
“All of this I think solidifies Fiserv Forum as a top-tier venue. And, it solidifies Milwaukee as a top-tier city.” Alex Lasry, Bucks senior vice president
two separate potential hotel developments: a convention center-style hotel, with banquet facilities and over 250 rooms, on the former Bradley Center block, and a smaller hotel, with around 150 to 175 rooms, on part of the block just east of Fiserv Forum’s parking structure.
Head of the Herd is reviewing “multiple proposals” for both sites, Feigin said, and hopes to disclose specific plans in early 2020.
The plans to expand the Wisconsin Center convention facility, which have been gaining momentum, increase the appeal of those potential hotel sites, Feigin said.
But even without an expansion, he said, “we’ll continue to plan ahead.”
Those additional hotels might make sense if they open around early 2022, said industry consultant Greg Hanis.
That would give other new downtown hotels time to absorb demand, while also waiting for the impact of the planned early 2023 opening of the expanded Wisconsin Center, said Hanis, who operates Hospitality Marketers International Inc.
“The timing of opening those hotels would have to be planned very carefully,” said Hanis, whose firm has a New Berlin office.
That block east of the parking structure also could land a major office building.
Brookfield-based financial services provider Fiserv Inc., which bought the arena’s naming rights last year, has considered it for a new corporate headquarters.
Meanwhile, Madison-based American Family Insurance Co. is considering sites on downtown’s west side, including some near Fiserv Forum, for a new Milwaukee office.
Head of the Herd plans to begin actively marketing the office site in September.
Even if that project doesn’t land either Fiserv or American Family as an anchor tenant, Feigin said, there’s strong demand throughout southeastern Wisconsin for suburban companies that want a downtown presence.
Several such firms have migrated to downtown in recent years, including companies helping redevelop the former Grand Avenue mall into The Avenue.
“We think this is the right time,” Feigin said.
Plans for the other sites are more long term. That includes over 200 apartments, along with a grocery store and other retail space, on the block bordered by Old World Third Street, Phillips Avenue, Juneau Avenue and McKinley Boulevard.
More immediately, the Bucks are preparing for more events at Fiserv Forum and its plaza, as well as serving as a host for the Democratic National Convention.
People who remain skeptical about the ability to create an entertainment district in a city the size of Milwaukee should look at similar successful developments in comparable communities such as Columbus, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and Kansas City, Feigin said.
Along with the entertainment center, which features Good City Brewing, Mecca Sports Bar and Grill, Punch Bowl Social and Drink Wisconsinbly, the public plaza is drawing such events as the Morning Glory Art Fair.
The art fair, which ran on Aug. 10-11, had long been held every summer at the Marcus Performing Arts Center.
“We had 12,000 people who’d never been to the arena before,” Feigin said.
The DNC will a much higher number of first-time arena visitors.
Along with convention delegates, the DNC will attract others — including journalists from throughout the world who will give the city a high profile.
“All of this I think solidifies Fiserv Forum as a top-tier venue,” said Alex Lasry, a Bucks senior vice president who led the effort to land the DNC.
“And, it solidifies Milwaukee as a top-tier city,” Lasry said.
Of course, the popularity of the arena, entertainment center and plaza could decline once its freshness wears off — something design critics discussed in a May Journal Sentinel article.
Also, growing signs of a possible recession could hamper future development plans.
Feigin isn’t worried.
Head of the Herd has the capital to make those investments even if the economy slows down, he said.
“If we go ahead and commence projects,” Feigin said, “I have no doubt we’ll finish them.”