Bucks hope for ripple effect from new arena proposal

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Bucks team officials said they hoped a proposed development centered around a $500 million arena for the team would have a ripple effect across the city and the state.

Architectural drawings of a proposed new arena and adjacent plaza were released at a press conference where Milwaukee Bucks president Peter Feigin and Bucks majority partner Mike Fascitelli described a private-public partnership involving the state, the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.

Promoters hope to attract retail stores, a small office building or a hotel to the site.

“We want to create a ripple effect throughout downtown and across the state,” said Feigin. “There is a tremendous amount of potential around it. We believe this will revitalize a new space, specifically the Park East and begin to connect the city in every direction, to Pabst Brewery to Schlitz Park through Bronzeville and to the river.”

Officials said the proposed arena will cost an estimated $500 million, which includes $250 million pledged by the team’s owners and former owner Herb Kohl; $220 million in state funding — which has yet to be confirmed by lawmakers — and $50 million in local money. The promoters say the “wow factor” will lead to an additional $500 million in commercial and residential development spreading into nearby neighborhoods.

Fascitelli, former president and CEO of New York real estate trust investment giant Vornado, was introduced as “the quarterback of the development of the project.” Fascitelli called the arena project a “community center with a lot of uses, including on non-game days.”

International architectural firm Populous will team with one of Milwaukee’s most prominent architectural firms, Eppstein Uhen, to design the project.

Artist’s renderings show an arena with banks of glass windows and a rolling roofline reminiscent of a large wave. The plan calls for a spacious plaza covered with a glass-like canopy in front of the new arena. A parking structure and team practice facility would be built in the back.

After the new arena is completed, plans call for the existing BMO Harris Bradley Center will be razed.

Populous architect Brad Clark said the proposed 17,000-seat arena’s design “looks to the future and honors the past.” He said the ground level will have an “earth palette” to echo Milwaukee’s natural beauty and walls of glass to offer stunning views, as well as allow people on the street to view the inside of the arena.

Architect Greg Uhen said it will be key to include residential housing in the vicinity to create a “24/7/365 type of a neighborhood.”

Fascitelli said if financing arrangements can be made, construction will break ground by early fall, with the goal of being open for the 2017 Milwaukee Bucks season.

— By Kay Nolan
For WisBusiness.com