In the face of increased construction costs and interest rates, Madison-based concert promoter FPC Live is revising its plans for an indoor music venue development at the Deer District in downtown Milwaukee.
The project – originally billed as a “complex” housing one 4,000-capacity venue and a second 800-capacity venue – will now be scaled back to a single 4,500-capacity venue, to be built on the northeast section of the former Bradley Center site, located just south of Fiserv Forum and owned by the Milwaukee Bucks.
The proposed update to the project was first reported by the Milwaukee Business Journal and confirmed to BizTimes Milwaukee on Wednesday by Joel Plant, chief executive officer of Frank Productions, FPC Live’s parent company.
Plant pointed to macroeconomic factors – namely increased costs of steel and concrete and higher interest rates on loans – as major reasons for FPC Live’s decision to put its full weight behind the larger of the two spaces as the new focal point of the project, now estimated to cost more than $60 million, up from an initial price tag of $50 million. The company plans to submit its plans to the city on Friday, in hopes of breaking ground late this year and opening the venue in early 2025, Plant said.
After the two-venue project gained unanimous approval from the city’s Common Council late last year, FPC Live had made public its plans to break ground in January 2023, for a target completion of early 2024, in time for the Republican National Convention that summer. But upon learning the dates of the RNC, which were set earlier than past conventions, and coming to terms with the impact of volatile economic conditions on the project’s financing, Plant concluded it would be a “fool’s errand” to chase the initial timeline.
“We ended up in a position where we had to make a choice,” he said. “We either strip out amenities for artists and their fans and really trim down the rooms to being not much more than a box of air or we focus on the piece of the project that’s going to have the biggest and best and longest-term impact on Milwaukee’s marketability as a must-play city.”
To that end, it made the most sense to focus on the larger of the two venues, enhancing its amenities and increasing its capacity to make it “scalable for more artists,” Plant said.
As for financing, the project will remain 100% privately funded. Plant said the company remains committed to the now-steeper investment and its financing partners are “still very interested.” And what’s more, moving forward with a larger venue, which was always expected to drive more revenue with higher-attended shows (albeit fewer), is likely to present as a better business scenario to lenders.
“Our ability to secure financing was not in question, the question was how much financing do we want to secure, and at what point does it become unsustainable to build the large room when one room will drive the most impact for the market?” he said.
FPC Live won’t be able to close on the necessary funding until the revised project is approved by the city and an updated project cost is determined.
The Deer District development project advances an ongoing effort by Frank Productions to strengthen its presence in Milwaukee – a market it sees as sorely underserved by live entertainment.
The company, which is majority owned by Live Nation, has gradually gained a local foothold over the past few years through deals with the likes of Summerfest operator Milwaukee World Festivals, the Bucks and the Brewers to promote shows at the city’s premier concert venues. Those partnerships are starting to bare fruit, said Plant, pointing to a projected 31% year-over-year increase in total tickets sold for shows in Milwaukee this year, an influx of shows at Henry Maier Festival Park on non-Summerfest days and P!NK’s recent record-breaking show at American Family Field as the first female to headline a stadium in Wisconsin.
“As we hypothesized, there’s a huge unmet demand for live entertainment in Milwaukee,” said Plant.
