Milwaukee Music Venues Decry Plans For Deer District Concert Complex

MILWAUKEE, WI — Several longstanding Milwaukee concert venues are decrying plans from FPC Live to construct a new pair of music venues near the Fiserv Forum's Deer District.

Plans for the 4,000-person and 800-person venues were released in May. But by August, the group "Save MKE’s Music Scene" announced its formation and opposition to the project in a news release. On its website, SMMS touts partnerships with The Back Room at Colectivo, Cactus Club, The Miller High Life Theatre, Pabst Theater, Riverside Theater, Shank Hall, The Rave and Eagles Club.

FPC Live has said the new venues could house over 135 shows and attract 200,000 visitors each year. But for local venues, that could be a problem, according to Craig Peterson, the executive director of SMMS.

"Those are events that would otherwise go to all the locally owned independent venues," Peterson told Patch. "And if you take away those 135 events from Pabst Theater, The Rave or Shank Hall, all all those venues, there is not enough for the independent venues to survive. "

Charlie Goldstone, the president of FPC Live, called the claim unsubstantiated and said there's "no way" their 135 events would cancel out the other venues' events.

"We simply do not think that our venues are going to put anybody else out of business," Goldstone said. "That's certainly not their intent."

But Peterson said SMMS partner venues and others have been calling local representatives in hopes that the Milwaukee Common Council and Plan Commission halt the project. A petition has garnered over 3,800 signatures on Change.org.

The new venues would be located near Highland and Vel R. Phillips Avenues, hardly blocks away from the Turner Hall Ballroom and the Miller High Life Theater. The Pabst Theater and the Riverside Theater are both about 1/2 mile from the proposed venues, just across the Milwaukee River.

The Rave and Eagles Club is about 1.3 miles southwest of the proposal while Colectivo's Backroom is about 2 miles northeast of the Deer District and the Cactus Club is about 3.5 miles southeast.

Local venues' distaste for the project has largely focused on how Live Nation conducts business. Live Nation owns a majority share in Frank Productions, which in turn owns FPC Live.

The proposal is a "direct threat to the future of the Turner Hall Ballroom,” said Emilio De Torres, the executive director for Milwaukee Turners, Inc. for Turner Hall, in a news release from August.

In the same release, Cactus Club Owner Kelsey Kaufmann said the venue "can't compete with a publicly traded corporation for acts."

"Live Nation is a threat to Milwaukee's live music culture, our artists, communities and neighborhoods," Kaufmann said in the news release.

Peter Jest, who owns Shank Hall, called Live Nation "the Walmart of concert promotion."

“In years past a promoter would book an act and build a relationship all the way up to arena level,” said Jest in the August news release. “Those days are gone as Live Nation just waits until the acts get big and throws an absurd amount of money at them."

But Goldstone said the new venues are needed for the future of Milwaukee's music scene.

"It's going to elevate the scene overall. And I think that doesn't mean that everybody's calendar is going to look exactly the same, but what should happen, which is what's happened in other places, is that these venues will all continue to find their way to be successful," said Goldstone. "And we truly believe that."

The Milwaukee Bucks have been a partner in the project so far. When plans came out in May Senior Vice President of Bucks Ventures and Development Michael Belot said bringing two new venues to the Deer District "will continue to solidify it as Milwaukee’s premiere location for entertainment."

SMMS has expressed concerns that the partnership isn't in line with previous agreements from the Bucks. Peterson said the land slated for the concert venue would be better used as a convention hotel.

Goldstone said there would still be room at the site — where the Bradley Center once stood — for other developments besides the venues.