Fiserv Forum Anchors Fresh Activation Of 30-Acre Milwaukee Development

Fiserv Forum opened in Milwaukee in August as the brand-new home of the NBA’s Bucks and Marquette University, but the development was always about more than serving as a 17,341-seat home for basketball and concerts and replacing the aged Bradley Center. The opening celebrates the development of 30 acres surrounding the arena, including a still-growing Entertainment Block.

Along with the arena — the obvious backbone of the 30-acre district — the Bucks had one year earlier opened the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Sports Science Center and a parking structure across from the arena with a skybridge connecting it to the forum.

This season, though, development has sped up, first with a beer garden run by the Bucks opening in fall 2018, the January launch of Good City Brewing and the March opening of Punch Bowl Social, all part of the Entertainment Block developed by Head of the Herd Real Estate Development, an affiliate of the Bucks. Even while an apartment complex remains under construction next to the parking garage, expect to see the early-April opening of a Drink Wisconsinbly pub and a mid-April opening of the MECCA Sports Bar and Grill in the Entertainment Block.

“It is all part of the strategy of how do we make it welcoming and more of a living room to the city so you can program your day and extend it,” says Peter Feigin, president of the Bucks. Already with just a few new additions to the neighborhood, the Bucks find that more fans arrive an hour earlier to the district, a “dramatic change” from past behavior, especially during the cold winter months.

“The fact that people are coming to venture out to explore and see the new structures and operations are incredible,” Feigin says. “Not only does the time period get extended on the front end, but we are seeing lingering post event, whether the Bucks, Marquette or concerts, with hundreds of people staying in the district for an hour-plus afterward. It is just what strategically we wanted, to make the district sticky with folks.”

Feigin says that the grouping of pub-like options in the Entertainment Block of the development offers fans something not available elsewhere in Milwaukee and the new openings in April will only serve to grow that experience. Feigin hopes to see more non-event day traffic too, although a robust schedule of events is the best way to attract folks to the area, he says.

That attraction comes from a varied menu of activities in and around the arena to a literal menu of food and beverage that spans demographics. “You really have to have something for everyone on the retail entertainment side,” Feigin says.

MORE: Milwaukee’s Design Of Fresh Fiserv Forum

The opening of the MECCA, owned by Head of the Herd, ties to the history of the city, using an old arena name. With a two-story, 11,500-square-foot footprint in the same building as Good City Brewing, expect a 36-foot high-definition screen, two full-size bars accommodating 600 guests, outdoor seating on both levels and arena-style seating on the second floor.

“The MECCA Sports Bar and Grill will be a major attraction for Milwaukee’s passionate sports fans,” says Michael Belot, senior vice president of Bucks Ventures and Development. “The Entertainment Block has a bold future, and we are proud to give homage to the Bucks’ rich past by bestowing the sports bar and grill with the MECCA name.” 

Wisconsin lifestyle brand Drink Wisconsinbly will open a pub and merchandise shop in 3,500 square feet within the block. Already, the brand presents a rotating list of Wisconsin micro-beers within Fiserv Forum.

“Drink Wisconsinbly is incredibly excited and proud to be bringing our flagship DW Pub to the Entertainment Block,” says John Casanova, president of Wisconsinbly Holdings and Drink Wisconsinbly Beverage Company LLC.  “We will celebrate all things Wisconsin and provide a unique experience for locals and tourists alike.”

The other way to attract people to the 30-acre district includes inviting them to live there. With roughly 15 acres already developed, including the arena, training center, medical office building, Entertainment Block and parking, the current demolition of the six-acre site that holds the Bradley Center will really allow development to move forward. “The real focus now is density and full-time density,” Feigin says. “How do we really build this with the objective of this being a really healthy neighborhood?

Expect to see hotels, office buildings and apartments filling the rest of the district, allowing the Bucks to activate events in a much more varied way, everything from a morning yoga session to a farmers market to an Ariana Grande concert or Bucks game. “There is a balance in how you serve the constituents that are there,” Feigin says. “The key is keeping it active and engaged and all the time, the centerpiece is the arena.”

Even before the opening of the new venue, designed by Populous, the Bucks sold 10,000 season tickets. Then the season started and the Bucks caught fire, now sitting in first place in the Eastern Conference. The success of Marquette basketball and the varied concert lineup has helped sustain excitement over the first seven months of operating, Feigin says, especially as over one million fans have visited the arena.

“The success is really the byproduct of four-plus years of hand-to-hand marketing and sales and building awareness and building aspirational excitement about it,” Feigin says. “When you have a winning team and the gold standard of concerts and entertainment, that is the accelerant. We have been building the marketplace and building the narrative and selling the vision. It has been a long process in the making.”

That process started with Fiserv Forum has really taken hold outside, as the 30-acre development continues to build a new district in downtown Milwaukee.

This post first appeared on Forbes.com. To see the original, click here.