For years some individuals, including myself, have advocated for the Milwaukee Brewers to develop some of the land around American Family Field.
Doing so would follow a trend in major professional sports. Many teams no longer rely just on their stadium on game days to generate revenue. In many cases the stadium is the anchor of a development district to attract business activity year-round. We’ve seen the Packers do this with the Titletown District and the Bucks with Deer District. Others of note include Patriot Place around the New England Patriots stadium in Massachusetts and The Battery Atlanta around the Braves ballpark.
But the Brewers have been resistant to take this approach, despite having about 90 acres of land around their stadium. Obviously it’s used for parking and tailgating on game days, but that’s a lot of unused land every other day of the year.
Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger has pointed out that real estate development is difficult and there’s not guarantee a development district around American Family Field would be successful. That’s true, of course.
But Milwaukee is the smallest market in Major League Baseball, and the Brewers need to explore every revenue opportunity to try to keep up with their large-market competitors. And the city would certainly benefit from additional development and business activity.
When public funding was approved for improvements to American Family Field, a study of the development potential around the stadium was required.
The firms conducting that study recently reported to the stadium district board that there is sufficient market demand to support development of about 25-30 acres, which would leave plenty of land for parking and tailgating.
The study says the market could support 600 to 1,000 apartments, a 150- to 200-room hotel, around 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of retail space and 20,000 to 50,000 square feet of office space for a development around the stadium. That sounds realistic and, if anything, conservative for a well-positioned site with freeway access and a highly visible location with proximity to an MLB stadium.
The Brewers should seek an experienced real estate development firm to partner with and pursue this opportunity. The best location would be the area between Highway 175/Brewers Boulevard and the Menomonee River, south of I-94. The river could be a real asset for the project. And sticking to that site would leave the parking area surrounding Helfaer Field, the Yount and Uecker lots east of the river and the parking areas north of I-94 still available for game parking and tailgating.
Just to the south is another massive development opportunity. The former Komatsu campus northeast of Brewers Boulevard and National Avenue. Development around American Family Field would help spur interest in that site as well.