Happy New Year!
Here are some of the top local business stories that we will be watching closely in 2025:
Trump’s return to the White House
As president-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, he is promising to make waves with big changes that could impact the local economy. Policy changes on trade/tariffs, immigration, energy and more will shake things up and we will be watching closely to see how local industries are impacted.
Seismic shift hitting local craft brewing industry
Major changes are reverberating through the local craft brewing industry, which will be felt throughout 2025. On New Year's Day, Milwaukee-based Good City Brewing announced that it is being sold to The Explorium Brewpub, which has locations at Southridge Mall in Greendale and just outside the Historic Third Ward in Milwaukee. Explorium is taking over operations at all of Good City’s locations, which are located on the East Side of Milwaukee, in the downtown Deer District, Mequon and Wauwatosa. The news came one day after Milwaukee-based City Lights Brewing Company, located in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley, announced that it will close operations on Jan. 4. Good City and City Lights join a growing list of craft brewery brands in Milwaukee that are disappearing from the marketplace. MobCraft, located in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood, closed in November. Company Brewing in the city’s Riverwest neighborhood closed in May. Enlightened Brewing in the city’s Bay View neighborhood will close on Jan. 5. We will continue to closely follow the changes in the local craft brewing industry throughout the year.
NFL Draft’s impact on southeastern Wisconsin
The 2025 NFL Draft will be held in Green Bay from April 24-26. It will be a big deal for that area, of course, but the NFL Draft has grown into a massive event attracting football fans from all over. The Green Bay area doesn’t have nearly enough hotel rooms to accommodate the number of people who typically come to watch the draft in person. So, it’s anticipated that a large number of those coming to see the draft in Green Bay will stay in southeastern Wisconsin and other areas of the state. It will be interesting to see just how many people going to the draft in Green Bay stay in the Milwaukee area and what impact that has on the region’s economy that week.
The next phase for Iron District development
This could be a big year for the Iron District development, located northeast of the Marquette Interchange in downtown Milwaukee. The Iron District is a mixed-use project led by Kenosha-based Bear Development and to be anchored by an 8,000-seat soccer stadium. A 99-unit affordable apartment building has been completed at the site, but other components of the project, including the soccer stadium, have yet to move forward as Bear has been trying to secure financing in an environment challenged by higher interest rates and higher construction costs. Construction of the stadium could break ground this year and if built it will be the home of a USL Championship league professional soccer team.
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Rendering of the Iron District soccer stadium. Credit: Kahler Slater, JLG Architects[/caption]
Testing the depth of downtown Milwaukee’s high-end apartment market
Madison-based development firm Neutral is moving towards a groundbreaking for its 31-story, 378-unit apartment tower, called The Edison, at 1005 N. Edison St. along the Milwaukee River in downtown Milwaukee. Construction is expected to begin this year and be complete in 2027. If it moves forward it could be the region’s most significant groundbreaking this year.
At the same time, the downtown area’s two newest luxury apartment towers, The Couture near the lakefront and 333 Water in the Historic Third Ward (both completed in 2024), are still working to fill their units. The two buildings have a combined 655 apartments, and a majority of them are still vacant. The pace of their lease-up indicates that the downtown high end housing market may be nearing saturation, but the market has two years to absorb the units at The Couture and 333 Water before The Edison is planned to open.
Meanwhile, Neutral is hoping to build a massive development next to The Edison site at the Marcus Performing Arts Center parking structure site. The firm’s proposal calls for a $700 million development with multiple buildings, 750 residential units, 190,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail space and 300 hotel rooms. Selected by the Department of City Development through an RFP process, the Common Council has yet to move forward with selling the site to Neutral.
The firm has a limited development track record, but breaking ground on The Edison could help convince aldermen and the capital markets that it has the wherewithal for the Marcus Performing Arts Center parking structure redevelopment.
[caption id="attachment_596605" align="aligncenter" width="1280"]
A rendering of The Edison
Credit: Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture[/caption]
Microsoft data center development
Microsoft has paused construction on some of its data center project in Mount Pleasant. The company says it's refining its data center design but that its capital commitment for the project remains on track. This has been one of the most significant projects in the region since 2023 and in 2024 the company said it planned to build a $3.3 billion artificial intelligence data center in Mount Pleasant. The company has been working on three different sites in the village. We’ll be closely watching the latest developments with the Microsoft project and what comes out of its recent pause and design refinement.
Northridge site redevelopment
As demolition moves forward for the former Northridge Mall site on Milwaukee’s far northwest side the next step will be for city officials to seek redevelopment proposals. We expect to see an RFP process begin for the site, which could seek development ideas for the entire 58-acre site or have the site broken down into parts for separate RFPs for each.
U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills
Another major professional golf tournament will be played in southeastern Wisconsin this year. The U.S. Women’s Open will be held at Erin Hills in Washington County from May 28 to June. 1. It’s yet another big opportunity to showcase Wisconsin as one of the best states for golf in America and the crowds that come for the tournament will provide a boost to the regional economy.
Milwaukee Rep’s rebuilt downtown theater complex
A $78 million project to rebuild The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s downtown theater complex will be completed later this year. It will provide a new jewel for Milwaukee’s cultural landscape. We can’t wait to get in and see the space and show it to you and will explore the impact it has on the city’s arts and entertainment industry.
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Rendering of the Milwaukee Rep’s Associated Bank Theater Center. Credit: Milwaukee Rep[/caption]
FPC Live’s Deer District music venue
FPC Live will complete construction this year of its 4,500-spectator music venue in the downtown Deer District. FPC Live’s parent company is Frank Productions and concert industry giant Live Nation owns a majority stake of Frank Productions. The new facility will not only be a significant development for Deer District, but it will also shake up the downtown Milwaukee concert scene. It will be interesting to see if the venue, with its connections to Live Nation, is able to attract additional shows to Milwaukee or if it ends up attracting artists that would have played at other existing venues in Milwaukee.
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Rendering of the indoor concert venue building that Madison-based FPC Live is building just south of Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee.[/caption]
As the new year begins, these are the stories we are keeping an eye on, but there certainly will be many more that come up over the course of the year. Can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store.
Andrew Weiland is the editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.
