The Brewery District: Downtown Milwaukee's Next Great Neighborhood

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It may well be Milwaukee’s best-kept secret, but that’s about to change.

The past 12-plus years have seen a cacophony of cranes, clouds of dust, heavy trucks moving rubble out and bringing concrete into the eight blocks bounded by Winnebago Street on the north, Highland Avenue on the south, I-43 to the west and Seventh Street to the east. A lot of activity to be sure, but if you were to ask the average Milwaukeean to explain what’s going on there, most would be hard-pressed to answer. Which is a bit of a shame, since over the course of that time, a remarkable transformation has taken place, turning a once abandoned manufacturing site, a remnant of the city’s brewing heritage, into one of Downtown Milwaukee’s next great neighborhoods.

Formerly the site of the Pabst Brewery, the 21-acre campus was destined to be reduced to rubble following Pabst’s abrupt shut down in 1996. Yet under the leadership of real estate developer and philanthropist Joseph J. Zilber, The Brewery District now stands as a shining example of historic preservation and adaptive reuse nationwide. “Thriving cities like Milwaukee are always reinventing themselves, and there is no better example of reinvention than The Brewery,” says Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. “What was once a blue-ribbon beer production site is now a blue-ribbon, mixed-use development where people live, learn, create, have fun and conduct business. This is an important example of what’s possible when imagination and resources are brought together. That was Joe Zilber’s vision for The Brewery, and it’s a testament to his legacy.”

The sustainable and walkable development includes 16 repurposed buildings, 14 of which are historically preserved, totaling more than one million square feet, more than 844,000 square feet of new construction and a phased streetscape reconstruction with public spaces such as Zilber and Preservation parks, totaling more than $300 million in public and private investment.

A Transformational Project

According to Larry Witzling, senior planner and urban designer at the Milwaukee-based GRAEF engineering firm, The Brewery “is a major transformational project in the continuing saga of our Downtown.” Named “national planning pioneer” in 2017 by the American Planning Association, Witzling has been working on urban plans and developments in and around The Brewery District (including MacArthur Square and the Park East Corridor) since 1972.

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“When we were developing the Park East plan, we asked, ‘What’s the view down Juneau Avenue?’ and at that time, it was just the Pabst sign,” Witzling says. “In many ways, in terms of the reclamation of an older industrial district, The Brewery District is second to none.” He notes that across the country in many older industrial districts, developers often leave only exteriors and completely re-do the interior of the historic buildings. “You’re not going to find that here. Developments in Chicago and New York blew up their heritage inside—we’re preserving it,” he says. He adds it was obvious that the developers of The Brewery District have a fondness for that history—our beer-and-brats history. “They’ve done a fantastic job of preserving that both inside and outside of these historic buildings.”

Witzling says that The Brewery District is just now beginning to grow out of its initial boundaries, and that we will soon begin to see a much stronger connection with the Bucks Entertainment District and Park East corridor. In five to 10 years, he feels they will all be considered as one. “There are a lot of people that have never been to The Brewery District—other than students, hotel guests, fans to bars and restaurant or residents. That level of discovery will bubble up, and it’s going to be quite spectacular. After the Democratic National Convention (DNC) shows up here next year—those cameras, the attendees and the reporters will help make this a nationally known development.”

Live, Learn, Work and Play

Once considered a brownfield site, nearly 99% of the 21-acre former Pabst Brewery complex has been renovated or razed, creating wide and varied opportunities for businesses, students, seniors, educational institutions and cultural organizations. Since 2009, The Brewery District has celebrated the opening of many businesses and residential developments, including:

  • Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery, a network of bars and halls that formerly housed Pabst Offices.
  • A newly constructed, LEED Gold-certified, centralized, 908-stall parking structure.
  • The Boiler House office building, formerly the Pabst brewery’s Boiler House.
  • Zilber Park, a new development.
  • Blue Ribbon Lofts residential development, formerly the brewery’s Keg House.
  • UW-Milwaukee’s Joseph J. Zilber Public School of Health, LEED Gold-certified, formerly the cold storage building. This will be the first accredited school of public health in Wisconsin.
  • Brewhouse Inn and Suites, a 90-room hotel, formerly the Pabst’s Brewhouse.
  • Jackson’s Blue-Ribbon Pub, formerly the Grain House.
  • Pabst Professional Center, a newly constructed office building.
  • Frederick Lofts, a newly constructed residential development.
  • Brewery Point Apartments, newly constructed affordable apartments for seniors 55 and up.
  • Eleven25 at Pabst, undergraduate, graduate and professional luxury apartments and restaurants housed in the former bottling building.
  • Pabst Milwaukee Brewery and Taproom, a brewery and restaurant, formerly a church before conversion into Pabst’s training center.
  • Preservation Park, a new development.
  • Nō Studios, a hub for the creative arts, formerly Pabst’s research lab.
  • The 42, a mixed-use building with offices, the Glass + Griddle restaurant, an event venue and MKE Brewing Co., housed in a former shipping building.
  • Vim + Vigor, two newly constructed apartment developments.
  • Hyatt Place Milwaukee Downtown, a newly constructed 150-room hotel.
  • Malt House Lofts, residential development still under construction (to be completed this year) in the former Malt House.
  • Extra Space Storage, a self-storage facility in a former shipping building.

Carolyn Esswein, a professor at the UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning, has been watching the neighborhood’s progress closely for most of the past decade, regularly bringing UWM students to tour the development and specific buildings under renovation along the way. She says that, from a national perspective, The Brewery District stacks up very well. “[It] has a significant amount of square footage—it’s quite large at 20+ acres—not a lot of projects that large have come full-fledged like this. The developers’ ability to activate large brewery buildings while preserving their charm and historic character is remarkable. The Brewery District has come close to the original vision for the project—creating 18 hours of vibrant city living, working, education and entertainment, attracting all different age groups. It’s a really good mix.”

Overcoming Hurdles

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing along the way. According to Dan McCarthy, board member of The Brewery Neighborhood Improvement District #1 and vice president of Brewery Project LLC (The Brewery District’s master developer), several challenges faced the district over the past decade. “That is one of the more remarkable aspects of the development, in that it overcame all of them,” says McCarthy. He explains that Zilber purchased the site after an initial development concept (PabstCity) failed to secure the necessary city approvals. “But within five months of purchasing the property, Mr. Zilber and Brewery Project LLC had the property rezoned from manufacturing to mixed-use,” he continues. The project secured the largest TIF (Tax Increment Financing) assistance package in the city’s history at that time.

McCarthy adds that the site’s existing architecture also posed challenges, because it was a factory and not a warehouse district like Historic Third Ward. It featured several buildings so unique in their design that adapting them for new purposes was difficult and expensive. There were environmental challenges, including asbestos, lead paint and impacted soils in amounts that were staggering. The district’s sheer size and location on the outskirts of Downtown Milwaukee were also hindrances. The first developers needed to believe others would follow, or they would be left as isolated islands in a sea of otherwise empty buildings.

Finally, the 2007-’08 financial crisis hit just as the first land sites and buildings were becoming available for redevelopment. Alternative financing provided from the federal EB-5 program proved extremely useful until the financial marketplace creeped back to more a predictable and accessible status. “There are many aspects of The Brewery District that make it a unique and desirable neighborhood,” McCarthy says. “Perhaps most compelling is the blending of new and old. More than half of the complex has been historically preserved, yet it remains a prominent example of sustainability and urban redevelopment.”

In 2012, The Brewery District’s sustainability efforts were recognized with a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. This certification set into motion a commitment to maintain leadership in energy and environmental design through programs such as stormwater management and bioswale maintenance, as well as the addition of two parks—Preservation Park and Zilber Park—which have brought programming opportunities to residents, employees and guests.

Loving Life Downtown; Celebrating Spring

Suzanne Terry has been a Blue Ribbon Lofts resident for the past eight years, after selling her Whitefish Bay home and moving to The Brewery District. “We absolutely love our space [with its] 24-foot ceilings, old brick and old-world charm,” she says. “We can walk just about anywhere Downtown; it’s a great location. I lived in Whitefish Bay for more than 20 years; now when my grandkids visit, they say, ‘It’s so much cooler than where you used to live, grandma!’ It’s exciting to see the whole neighborhood come together. I’m excited; I think people are beginning to realize how amazing this neighborhood is.”

To commemorate the district’s completion and showcase the city’s newest Downtown neighborhood and its brewing history, The Brewery District is launching Frühling Fest, a celebration of spring on Saturday, May 25, from noon to 7 p.m. The free event features two stages of music, along with special craft and draft beer tappings by Pabst Milwaukee Brewery and Taproom and Milwaukee Brewing Company, a Best Place Beer Garden at Preservation Park, visual artists, Milwaukee Makers arts fair, Brewery District restaurants and more.

“We’ve had an exciting first decade, but we’re just getting started,” says Erin Stenum, manager of The Brewery Neighborhood Improvement District #1. “With growth in all development categories, we look forward to introducing additional events and amenities to cater to our residents, visitors and businesses alike.”