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NEW BREW

Milwaukee’s old Pabst brewery gives way to retail, leisure, homes

BY JO ELLEN MEYERS SHARP

New life is brewing in the beer capital of the world, as a 19th-century brewery gets converted into a 21st-century multiuse complex.

PabstCity, as the project is called, is going up on the site of the abandoned, 130-year-old Pabst Brewing Co. building, a Milwaukee institution with an imposing presence. The 22-acre site sits on seven blocks in Chestnut Hill, the city’s highest point, near Lake Michigan and Interstate 43.

At least half of the 40 old industrial buildings will be developed into a shining complex of entertainment, shops, offices and housing. Officials are anticipating the creation of about 3,000 jobs when this $350 million, 1.2 million-square-foot project opens sometime in 2006.

PabstCity’s owner-developer is Juneau Avenue Partners, a joint venture of Milwaukee-based Wispark, Atlanta-based TerreMark Partners and the Cleveland-based Ferchill Group. The partnership bought the historic property for $9.7 million from a California trust fund.

So far PabstCity has commitments from Los Angeles-based House of Blues Entertainment for a 32,000-square-foot nightclub, and Jenco Cinemas of Pittsburgh for a 16-screen Cinemax stadium-style theater with 4,000 seats.

The complex is close to finalizing deals with other urban specialty retailers and restaurants, says Craig Kaser, president of TerreMark, which is handling the leasing.

Founded in 1844, the Pabst brewery was one of the country’s oldest and largest. Over time it merged with or was sold to various entities, ending up in the hands of a California investor in 1985 before ceasing operation in the mid-1990s. (Its best-known beer brand, Pabst Blue Ribbon, is brewed today on a contract basis by The Miller Brewing Co.)

The city of Milwaukee, which has designated the site a historic district, is requiring certain standards in the redevelopment process. These include consistency of scale, setback, siting and materials, retention of the original roof shapes and masonry, and respect for the period windows, doors, trim and ornamentation.

The location is adjacent to Milwaukee’s Park East Corridor redevelopment, a project that city leaders tout as “a renaissance for downtown Milwaukee.”

Another round
Brewery redevelopment has been done in Milwaukee before. The Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. facility closed down in the early 1980s, soon after which it got converted as the Schlitz Office Park. Today the site remains an example of “a vibrant, very successful effort,” said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

The Pabst project’s turnaround has been slower. The property sat vacant for nearly 10 years while various parties looked it over, Barrett says. But “it has vast potential, and we’re very excited about working with the developers,” he said.

The property has brick-and-cobblestone streets and cream-colored brick buildings in Flemish revival, Gothic, Italianate and Lombardic architectural styles. “We determined [that] the highest and best use of the property was to retrofit the buildings,” Kaser said. He acknowledged, however, that such a choice will ever exact its price.

“It’s always easier to build from the ground up,” he said. “But many of these buildings were built in the 1840s and have created a sense of place. That’s what we are trying to develop: a [new] sense of place.”

Nearby are Marquette University, a technical college, the Bradley Center sports arena and some government office buildings.

Some demolition of a few mid-20th-century buildings is part of the plan, but the developers say they are working with the National Park Service and the city to preserve the site’s historic and architectural integrity.

“We like historic rehabilitation projects,” said John Ferchill, chairman and CEO of Ferchill Group. “This is as large as anyone will do, not just us.”

Not surprisingly, there are challenges in converting a historic setting into a lifestyle center, and “not all the historic issues are resolved,” Ferchill said. Many of the Pabst buildings lacked windows, for example, but the restaurants, offices and retail shops that are to be built need them, he says. So the developers are negotiating with the park service and city to find solutions.

Martha Brown, acting commissioner of the Milwaukee Department of Development, says PabstCity qualifies for various historic preservation tax credits. That may include some $65 million worth of credits under the federal Community Renewal Tax Relief Act, according to published reports.

A TIF-fy proposition
The developers are also looking into whether they can obtain a $75 million TIF (tax increment financing) structure. The city would freeze property taxes and issue bonds to pay for infrastructure improvements. As new business increases the tax base, the “increment” goes to repaying the bonds, and the property taxes are restored.

But it could take 20 years or more to repay the bonds, during which many of the new developments would stay off the general tax rolls. Concerned about this, city officials have called for an evaluation of all projects seeking TIF designation, putting the PabstCity request in limbo for a few months.

“We’re in the early stages of requesting a TIF,” Kaser said. All this creates pressure, because if the project is to meet its 2006 grand-opening deadline, work must begin by the end of the year.

No one should underestimate the project’s future fiscal importance to the city, its developers say.

“Our No. 1 motivation is the $500 million a year in retail sales that go to Illinois,” said Ferchill. “We want to capture some of that and increase the retail market in Milwaukee.”

The Park East Freeway, which was obstructing a view of the brewery, has been removed, and the developers have allocated 450,000 square feet for the entertainment, retail and restaurants and 100,000 square feet for offices. They also plan to build 360 loft apartments, 200 condominiums and a 4,900-space parking structure.

There will be plenty of references to the site’s former function after the project is completed. When the brewery shut for good in 1996, its 250 workers left behind furnishings and tools. These and other memorabilia, as well as murals and stained-glass windows, will become a critical part of the PabstCity design, Kaser says.

The developers and city officials say they hope the project will restore the financial importance of a site that was once an economic, cultural and social hub for Milwaukee.

As Brown puts it, “It’s an extremely significant property, extremely visible.”