The possible replacement of downtown’s Miller High Life Theatre with a 650-room hotel tied to Baird Center is drawing questions from public officials who oversee the venues.
That recommendation is within a new study commissioned by the Wisconsin Center District. Its board discussed the study at a Jan. 30 meeting.
“I think the study poses a lot of questions it doesn’t answer,” said Greg Marcus, a board member and CEO of hotel and cinema operator Marcus Corp.
That includes how the development would be financed – which Marcus said would definitely need a public subsidy.
Board member and downtown hotel operator Mark Flaherty had similar comments.
“I don’t know how you ever finance a property like that,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Flaherty and Marcus estimated the hotel would cost $400 million to $500 million.
The study, done by consulting firm Hunden Partners, will be reviewed by a board committee, which will report to the full board in May, said James Kanter, board chair.
“We might need a new hotel,” Kanter told reporters after the meeting.
Milwaukee is losing significant business to other convention destinations because it doesn’t have enough hotels, says the study.
Milwaukee hotels that accommodate conventions are “much older than those of competitive markets,” it says.
That means Baird Center’s $456 million expansion, completed in 2024, “is unable to realize its full potential,” says the study.
The theater site, in the 500 block of West Kilbourn Avenue, also could accommodate 150 apartments, 30,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 15,000 square feet of activated green space, according to the study.
Marcus and Flaherty both said Milwaukee’s hotel business is competitive, and questioned the need for a new, large hotel.
“We need to get our current house in order,” Marcus told the Journal Sentinel.
High Life Theatre demo would need city approval
The Common Council in December designated both the theater and neighboring UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena as historic. Any exterior changes need Historic Preservation Commission approval – although its rulings can be appealed to the council.
Alderman Robert Bauman, who’s also a district board member, requested historic designation over concerns the Hunden Partners study would recommend demolishing the arena and theater.
Bauman said on Jan. 30 the district should consider a possible hotel development at the city-owned parking lot located next to Vel R. Phillips Plaza, in the 400 block of West Wisconsin Avenue.
“That site seems more reasonable,” said Bauman.
The Hunden study ranked that lot as the second-best place to develop the hotel – with the theater site and arena site tying for top rank among the six potential locations.
Other hotel development proposals at the Wisconsin Avenue lot, dating to the 1990s, failed to proceed.
Also opposed to demolishing the theater is Gary Witt, CEO of Pabst Theater Group – which promotes concerts there.
The study’s suggestion that the neighboring Landmark Credit Union Live venue will make the theater obsolete is false, Witt said.
The theater is Wisconsin’s only 4,000-seat traditional seated theater, while the Landmark venue – which opens in February at 1051 N. Phillips Ave. – is a general admission, standing-room club, Witt said, in a statement to board members.
Witt also said the theater underperformed until Pabst Theater Group began promoting shows there in 2022.
The theater, originally known as the Milwaukee Auditorium, opened in 1909, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
The theater had a two-year, $42 million renovation that was completed in 2003. Around $20 million in debt remains on the district’s books from that project − which included a $10 million cost overrun.
The need to pay off that debt before its 2034 due date would be “a minimal consideration” within the overall costs of a large redevelopment project, district CEO and President Marty Brooks said, at a May district board meeting.
Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram,Bluesky, X and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: High Life Theatre’s replacement by convention hotel draws questions
Reporting by Tom Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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