I don't need to remind many people that the first Pabst proposal, known as "Pabst City," stirred up controversy and resulted in finger-pointing and name-calling around City Hall, as well as making great copy for mainstream media, with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel running a two-day cliffhanger chronicling the insider play-by-play surrounding the development.
Having been present for virtually every aspect of the deal, I can assure you that the reality show was much less interesting, and the end result was that 25 acres in an important corner of Downtown continued to sit idle as it has done since November 1996.
Earlier this year, Joe Zilber, an 80-something local developer and multi-millionaire, entered the picture and bought the Pabst site from WisPark, the development arm of WE Energies, who had formulated the first Pabst plan. Mr. Zilber (when you have as much money and have done as many good things as he has, you earn the right to be called mister) announced that he wanted the Pabst site to be recreated into a true Milwaukee neighborhood as part of his "legacy" to Milwaukee. He and his representatives entered into negotiations with the city over the amount of TIF dollars that would be spent to assist in the redevelopment of the site, and the result was the agreement that passed on Dec. 12.
The project will receive the final go-ahead from the mayor in the next several days, and work on the site will start in early 2007.
Some Milwaukee residents will be happy to see any activity on this site.
Some may (erroneously) believe that their taxes are about to go up because the city has invested in the site. And some may wonder exactly what it is we are getting for the investment. Below is my attempt to objectively summarize what the "Brewery Project" will mean for the city and how it differs from the first project proposed at the Pabst site.
If the first Pabst proposal ("Pabst City") had been approved, here is what would have happened in the short term as a result of approval of about $41 million in TIF assistance. Imagine if a veil were put over the entire 25-acre site for about 18 months. When the veil was lifted, you would see a movie theater complex over here, the House of Blues in that corner, restaurants and retail establishments lining this street and a Gameworks and Bowling Alley over there. With "Pabst City," the developers had agreements in hand for tenants and users and the city knew exactly what it would be getting.
For Downtown restaurant owners, music venue operators and some in the historic preservation community, they knew the details of the plan and thus, knew exactly what they felt in the project was a danger to them because it was laid out veryplainly in front of them.
While many in the city likely still wish this plan had been adopted, there are a few important points to stress about the Pabst City proposal. First, entertainment and retail "destinations" have a shelf life of 7-10 years, meaning that the project would likely have needed some "freshening up" -- perhaps in the form of more city assistance -- before the initial investment in the project had been paid off. The city has been involved in assisting the Grand Avenue at least three times since the early 1980s, mainly because Downtown retail is difficult in Milwaukee as it is throughout the country. The "concept" retail envisioned at Pabst often times has even a shorter life span.
Nevertheless, the Pabst City project had strong support from Mayor Barrett and his administration, as well as many members of the Milwaukee Common Council. Members of the development community shuddered at the city turning its back on a project that was destined to add more than $300 million in new taxable value to the city of Milwaukee, in addition to helping employ more residents and generate economic activity in the form of construction jobs, sales taxes from the retail tenants and other facets of the project.
In the wake of the Pabst City defeat, Joe Zilber stepped forward and announced that he wanted to create a true Milwaukee neighborhood at the Pabst site. He bought the site and his team set about creating a concept for such a mixed use neighborhood, albeit one without the focus on entertainment and such a great deal of retail. The concept that was born is known as "The Brewery Project" and is what received universal support from the Mayor and the Milwaukee Common Council.
Rather than dropping a brand new 25 acre project in at one time (the "lift the veil" approach of Pabst City), the Zilber concept envisions an evolution at the site over a 5-7 year period. In much the same way that the Schlitz Brewery was redeveloped in the late 1980's and early '90s, Zilber envisions office tenants at the Pabst site who want a strong connection to Downtown without having to pay Downtown office tower rents. It may surprise some that Schlitz Park now houses more than 2,600 workers in the various office tenants, about 30 percent more than were ever employed at the operating Schlitz Brewery. In addition, the Schlitz Park project helped spur residential development of the Beerline and Brewers Hill and injected new life into the commercial corridor along Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. As a similar success story is written in the redevelopment of the Pabst Brewery, thousands of Milwaukee area residents will be able to earn a good living on the site, and the momentum from the site can carry over into the residential neighborhoods to the north and west across I-43 from the site.
A main difference of the Brewery Project is that Zilber will in the end own few, if any, of the buildings on the site. Zilber will, with the city's help, clean up the site, demolish some of the unusable buildings, reintroduce streets, create pocket parks, lay sewers and other utilities and generally prepare the site for others to buy specific parcels.
Those eventual buyers will either be end-users themselves (companies and businesses) or will own the buildings and find tenants to use them. The Zilber Plan foresees about 500,000 sq. ft. of office space, hundreds of residential units, parking structures and some retail to service the new residents and businesses. But it is important to stress that the timeline and final product may evolve somewhat differently than this plan, depending on economic market conditions in Milwaukee and around the country.
In the end, at the Pabst site, the city is involved in a proven model for bringing jobs and residents back to an area that has seen dramatic disinvestment over the last 25-30 years. While the approved project may lack some of the flash and sizzle of the Pabst City proposal, the future looks far brighter at the Pabst site than it did just a year ago.
Instead of continuing to watch a Milwaukee landmark crumble into dust and deciding who is to blame, we can chart the progress on the site over the next few years with excitement and anticipation of the rebirth that lies ahead for the Pabst Brewery site.
Joel Brennan was appointed in May 2004 by Mayor Tom Barrett to lead the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Milwaukee (RACM). In this capacity, Brennan oversees the city's real estate development and manages large impact economic development projects. The Redevelopment Authority initiates Tax Incremental Financing projects, issues bonds for major development projects and acts as the real estate acquisition and disposition arm for the City of Milwaukee. Major RACM efforts in the past few years include the cleanup of the Menomonee Valley, the Job Corps Center development, the rehabilitation of the downtown Amtrak Station and the redevelopment of the Park East Corridor.
Prior to leading up the Redevelopment Authority, Brennan served as Vice President for the Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau. Brennan worked to attract prospective businesses, residents, and visitors to the Greater Milwaukee area, helping foster economic development in the region. Both the Milwaukee Business Journal and Milwaukee Magazine have recognized Joel Brennan as an emerging leader in Southeast Wisconsin for his commitment to attracting business and visitors to the Milwaukee area, and his work on important regional public policy issues.
Brennan has also managed several political campaigns in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, most recently serving as the campaign manager for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's successful bid for the highest office in the city in April 2004.
Joel Brennan grew up in the Milwaukee area and worked his way through Marquette University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1992. He was selected as a Harris Fellow at the University of Chicago and earned a Master's Degree in Public Policy from University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy in 1999. He lives with his wife and baby daughter in Milwaukee's Brewers Hill neighborhood.
