Milwaukee-based Good City Brewing LLC is seeking $500,000 for its second production facility and taproom that will be built as part of the Entertainment Block the Milwaukee Bucks are developing across North Fourth Street from the new arena in downtown Milwaukee.
The brewery, located on Milwaukee’s East Side, has so far raised $483,000 from 22 investors in an equity round, which started on June 6, according to an SEC filing. Another $17,000 in additional funds are needed to fill the gap.
Co-founder David Dupee, who is also the founder of equity crowdfunding platform CraftFund, confirmed these numbers, but said he could not disclose further details about the effort. Dupee, along with Dan Katt, a local real estate developer and Andrew Jones, a former plant manager at Lakefront Brewery, launched Good City in 2016.
The company will soon reveal additional information about the project, including its total cost and renderings of the venue’s second floor private event space, Dupee said.
Good City will occupy 11,000 square feet of in the Entertainment Block’s Building A, which is being constructed along West Juneau Avenue. The brewery will lease the space from Head of the Herd Real Estate Development LLC, the entity the Bucks created to be the developer of the Entertainment Block. Construction of the building’s shell is currently underway and the brewery’s build-out will begin in September, Dupee said.
The 200-seat first-floor taproom, designed by Kahler Slater, will feature 24 Good City taps and a wood-fired oven kitchen concept by brewery chef Guy Davies. The second floor will feature additional outdoor patio seating and an event space with capacity for 350.
The Entertainment Block, which will span the east side of North Fourth Street between West Highland Avenue and West Juneau Avenue, will feature a mix of dining, entertainment and retail. It is one of the central elements of the Bucks’ design plans for the arena district and connects the arena with Old World Third Street.
The Bucks have been actively pursuing tenants for the Entertainment Block, which they had initially hoped to open this fall when the new $524 million arena opens. The timing of the Entertainment Block has been pushed back to spring 2019.
Punch Bowl Social, a national “eatertainment” chain, is also expected to open its first Milwaukee location in the Entertainment Block, according to commercial real estate sources.
