Green Bay Packers to start construction on a business district near Lambeau Field this fall

This fall, the Green Bay Packers will break ground on Titletown District, a mixed-use development west of the NFL team's home of Lambeau Field. When completed in the fall of 2017, the first phase of Titletown District will include a hotel, a sports medicine center, a restaurant/brewery, and a 10-acre public plaza.

The Milwaukee Business Journal reports that the first phase of this project is expected to cost between $120 million and $130 million, with the Packers contributing $65 million of that total.

For several years, the Wisconsin-based team has been acquiring land in town and demolishing buildings in preparation for starting Titletown District. The first tenant, a 100,000-sf Cabela’s sporting goods outlet the retailer developed with the team, opened in July 2014 and drew 2.8 million visitors in its first 12 months in business.

The Journal reports that this fall the Packers and its Building Team—which includes Sterling Project Development, a New York real estate advisory firm; Rossetti, a Detroit architectural design and planning firm; and Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, a New York design consultant with expertise in public-spaces and streetscapes—will begin installing infrastructure on eight of the project’s 20 acres for initial tenants that will include a five-story, 150-room, four-diamond hotel to be call Lodge Kohler, which the bath and kitchen fixture supplier Kohler Co. will build and operate.

The hotel will not only provide rooms for fans attending Packers’ games, but should also benefit from the 700 events the team conducts annually.  

Other initial tenants will include a 20,000-sf Hinterland restaurant/brewery; and a 30,000-sf sports medicine facility called Bellin Health, which will feature lab, X-ray, and MRI services. The Packers’ team physician Dr. Patrick McKenzie will staff the clinic.

The publicly owned Packers reported $375 million in revenue for fiscal year 2015, up 16%. Team president Mark Murphy said the franchise continues to acquire land with an eye toward further regional economic development that could include residential buildings.