A new study conducted for the Wisconsin Center District has recommended the demolition of the 117-year-old Miller High Life Theatre in Milwaukee. The report, which was conducted by real estate development strategy firm Hunden Partners, states that the District could be attracting significantly more business if the area had another hotel located near the recently renovated Baird Center – specifically in the location where the Miller High Life Theatre stands.
According to the proposal, the theater – which is owned by the WCD and operated by independent promoter Pabst Theater Group – was recommended for demolition because it will be “threatened with the new Live Nation venue” that is currently being built nearby on the same campus as the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks arena, Fiserv Forum. The proposal argues the two theaters will saturate the market.
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Live Nation and FPC Live (a Live Nation joint-venture partner based in Madison, Wis.) are set to open the 4,500-capacity Landmark Credit Union Live venue later this month just steps away from Fiserv Forum and across the street from both Miller High Life Theatre and Panther Arena, both part of the WCD.
“The Miller High Life Theatre is a unicorn – the only 4,000-seat traditional theatre in the entire State of Wisconsin,” said Gary Witt, CEO of Pabst Theater Group and promoter for Miller High Life Theatre in a statement. “You simply cannot put Seinfeld, Dolly Parton, Nikki Glaser or Cirque du Soleil in a flat-floor, general admission, standing-room club. If this historic 117-year-old venue is demolished, those world-class tours don’t ‘migrate’ to a general admission Live Nation room; they will bypass Milwaukee and Wisconsin entirely. Replacing a cultural anchor with a hotel isn’t progress; it’s a self-inflicted wound that permanently shrinks our city’s economic and cultural footprint.”
According to the study, the Miller High Life is being targeted for demolition because it suggests $19 million in investments to keep up with industry standards.
Stephen Parker, executive director of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), tells Billboard the removal of Miller High Life Theatre is “unnecessary.”
“Aside from the incredible history the theater has, it’s an independent venue,” Parker says. “It is run by a promoter that was homegrown, that started in Milwaukee and has given back to the city and the county of Milwaukee and the entire state of Wisconsin for years without a single dollar in government support.”
Pabst Theater Group runs several local venues including Miller High Life Theatre (4,100-capacity), The Pabst Theater (1,300), The Riverside Theater (1,300), Turner Hall Ballroom (1,000) and Vivarium (450).
“The argument from this report is, ‘oh, well some of the shows that Pabst is doing are going to go over here [to Landmark Credit Union Live], so let’s get rid of it,” adds Parker. “The fact that Live Nation, that the cities, are not saying the quiet part out loud, which is, this was always going to be a lot of shows that were coming here anyway and now an independent venue is paying the price.”
Representatives for Live Nation state that the promoter values the role Miller High Life Theatre plays in Milwaukee and that they, along with FPC Live, have several sold-out shows booked at the theater and plan to continue bringing shows to the venue.
In a statement provided to Billboard, Live Nation asserts that they were not involved in the report. “We have a long history of promoting shows at the Miller High Life Theatre and will continue bringing events to the venue. Any effort to link Live Nation or FPC Live to the Hunden study is misleading, as neither organization was consulted or involved in the report.”
The proposal to bolster Baird Center tourism by building a hotel in place of the Miller High Life comes just months after the City of Milwaukee was encouraged to designate the theater a historical landmark. In November, the city’s Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously to give historic designation for both the theater and the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The theater was considered for this designation given its history of hosting The Rolling Stones, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Jerry Seinfeld, Dolly Parton, Noah Kahan, Nikki Glaser, and U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt.