Bucks double down on community
Leaders praise new downtown practice facility
The Milwaukee Bucks ownership team says it is redoubling efforts to become part of the community as it rebuilds the team and helps transform downtown.
At the grand opening of the team’s $31 million practice facility Thursday, civic leaders delivered their verdict: Thumbs up.
Local officials often hear groups promise to get involved in the community, said Ald. Milele Coggs. “But rarely do we see them deliver in such a great and amazing way,” she said.
The facility, and an accompanying medical clinic, are located at N. 6th St. and W. Juneau Ave., across the street from the $524 million arena the Bucks are building with $250 million in public funds. The promises to get deeply involved with the community came as part of the team’s pitch for the public dollars.
Coggs noted that the arena and accompanying practice facility were downtown, near the Hillside public housing complex, home to 1,200 people.
That’s “huge,” she said, adding that the Bucks have been “very intentional about the way they’ve chosen to do all of this development.”
“We didn’t know what we were getting” when the new owners bought the team from former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl in 2014, Mayor Tom Barrett said. “At every turn, they have invested more and more.”
For a decade, the land for the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Sports Science Center sat vacant and was seen by many as a “wasteland,” said Ald. Robert Bauman, who represents downtown.
The county-owned parcel, once part of the Park East Freeway corridor, includes a steep grade and was “arguably the least-buildable parcel” in the area, he said.
The Bucks created “a very handsome building,” Bauman said.
As part of its partnership with the Bucks, Froedtert is building a medical clinic just north of the practice facility. That clinic opens in the fall and will serve the near north side as well as the booming downtown residential market.