Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Changes Coming to the Summerfest Grounds, More Apartments, and a New Downtown Social Club
It's time to check in with Teddy and I go from the Milwaukee Business Journal and, of course, our eyes, we thought we were turned away from the summer fest grounds because all those festivals are over. But not so fast because there might be some improvements being made, Teddy. Yeah. So Milwaukee World Festival, which is the organization that runs summer fest, they have issued an RFP looking at ways that they can really increase utilization of the summer fest grounds. Obviously, it's prime real estate right there on the lake and it's not used year round. And so they announced yesterday that they have selected a firm to kind of take that idea a little further and explore potential other uses and other ways to kind of creatively increase profitability for Milwaukee World Festival and also utilize that space even more. So the company they selected is Gensler, which is architecture firm based in San Francisco. But Gensler is also partnering with a local architecture firm Zimmerman Architectural Studios. Any idea what they might do to make it even better? No, I mean, they're going to be working hard on their proposal and that's expected to be done by the end of next year. So we may have to wait a bit to see what their ideas are. But it's a 75 acre waterfront property. I mean, many people have obviously been to summer fest. You know, it's a big area. There's potentially a lot of opportunities. I mean, the summer fest organizers have already been trying to kind of use the space more. Obviously, they use it for the Republican National Convention for the Welcome Party. There was a Red Bull wakeboarding event there last week. So yeah, maybe more events, but you know, maybe with an architecture firm, maybe something more than that. So we'll certainly be watching the team has worked on other high profile areas around the country, like Navy, Pier and Chicago, Area 15 in Las Vegas. So they have some good talent working on this project here in Milwaukee. It sounds really exciting. All right. Now, let's move to something else. Do you work out a lot, Teddy? You know, since I had a baby last year, that's been my workout is trying to keep up with it. So I'm not in the gym as much. But a lot of people are and there are some changes with Gold's gym and that's really kind of interesting. Yeah, you know, this story has gotten a lot of interest on our website over the last couple of days. So the Gold's gym in downtown Milwaukee, which is right along the river, east side of the river, attached to a office complex called City Center where there's several local companies based there. So a Chicago investor bought the office complex, the city center complex, as well as the Gold's gym building and the Gold's gym assets. So this Chicago investor, it's a family kind of family owned investment firm. It's their first time investing Milwaukee, but they say they're very bullish on Milwaukee and they have a whole plan to kind of revamp this office and gym space. So they're rebranding Gold's gym as East Bank athletic and social. So it's going to be still a gym, but also kind of adding in some social elements, activities on the weekends and the evenings. And really what the company says is they're going to be trying to cater to residents who are now living downtown and all these new apartments buildings we've been seeing, but maybe they're working from home. Maybe they will kind of want some outlets to be a little bit more social. So they have a restaurant plan that will be right along the river. There's a vacant restaurant space within that Gold's gym building. So yeah, a lot of exciting changes coming to that space. It sounds like they're really going to be appealing, especially to younger people who might be looking, you know, for people to meet kind of a singles vibe there. Yeah, yeah, or even, you know, they also mentioned older couples who have kind of downsized want to live in downtown where there's lots to do. And so maybe some of those people would be interested as well. But yeah, in terms of the younger professionals, you know, they're talking about organized flag football and things like that to kind of give young professionals ways to be social outside of work. Again, particularly if they're working from home, but also catering to office employees as well, who maybe they don't live downtown. But maybe they're working downtown as all these companies keep moving jobs downtown and, you know, maybe they would want to have a gym membership and some social activities as well with their gym. Will that restaurant be open to the public? Yes. So the restaurant will be part of the club, which is a membership organization, but and they'll use it for member events, but it will also be open to the public. They say they're looking to open it by the end of the year. So we'll see if that comes to pass. I know these things usually take longer than expected, but it's an American booster style restaurant is what they're currently planning. No, look forward to trying it. Now, what about this new hotel that's expected on the east side? Yeah. So we've known that there's a hotel planned on Brady Street. And the latest news here is that it would replace an existing older complex of offices and retail stores. And there's a permit that's been filed to demolish that existing building. So this is kind of a sign that the hotel is moving forward demolition could the permit could be issued later this month. And so, demolish, it could begin after that, which is obviously the first step for building the hotel. We still know for sure which hotel it's going to be, but we do have some sense that it could be a Hilton tapestry hotel. But we do know that it was approved by the city last year for 130 room hotel development. Sounds like a nice little boutique might be coming. Yeah, we'll see. Obviously, there are not a lot of hotels in that Brady Street area. So interesting to see that this 11 story, you know, also not a lot of higher building there. So this is an 11 story hotel that's planned in that area. It's another week. So it means more apartments in Wauwatosa. Tell us about what they're planning now. Yeah. So this is the at Mayfair collection, which is the outlet malls right off of I-41 at the perlite exit. You know, north from rack is there, dicks, oh, maybe, et cetera. Behind that, there's an existing apartment, and then behind that, there's additional space where they're planning even more apartments. So these have already been planned, but they've kind of been delayed. And so now we know that the latest plans are to begin in early spring of 2025. So they are still not super immediate, but we know that there are more apartments planned within Mayfair collection. There's currently around between two and 300 apartments and they're planning another more than 500 apartments that will be built starting next year. So they're trying to just get more people living in that area to kind of capitalize on all the retail. That's there already and create more density in that area. Let's take a drive down 94. Why is it that ULINE keeps building around Kenosha? Yeah, I mean, so anyone who's driven down I-94, you've probably seen these massive office buildings for ULINE and massive warehouses. I actually drove down there last week and got a tour, which was really fascinating, and kind of talked to them about what they're using all these spaces for. It seems like they're constantly hiring, constantly building more, and so they are currently working on a new headquarters building. They already have two headquarters buildings in present prairie and then another headquarters office within one of their warehouses. They're constructing a new headquarters building right now, and they're also constructing another warehouse. They said that all this growth, and of course they're hiring as they're building all these new buildings. They said that this growth is kind of tied to the company's growth as it's continuing to grow its geographical presence across North America with more hubs across the country and Canada and Mexico that ship out supplies to businesses that need them next day. So they need to have these regional hubs all over the country in North America to supply their customers, and all of their shipments come through present prairie first, which is really interesting. So they continue as they grow across North America, they need more space here to be able to receive all of the items and then ship them out to all those regional hubs. So I thought that was really interesting and kind of business model. Do you think that'll have an impact on Amazon's presence in that same area? Not necessarily. I mean, they obviously compete. That was something I talked to the companies ahead of HR at ULINE, and he did mention that as they're continuing to hire for all these roles, they are competing with many employers in that area, including Amazon. And so they're definitely finding steep competition in terms of hiring warehouse employees. And I'm sure Amazon on the flip side might be feeling that competition for hiring with employees going to ULINE. Teddy and I come from the Milwaukee Business Journal. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks, Libby.