Mayor Barrett's confidence that aldermen would do the right thing was undeserved

Forget for a moment the “what” of PabstCity: a proposal to turn an obsolete brewery into entertainment and upscale housing complex, including a House of Blues music club and a cineplex. Forget the “what” because if such projects were left up to the good wardens of Milwaukee area development, ground would be broken in Brookfield, New Berlin or Germantown.

The important question in the failure of PabstCity at the Milwaukee Common Council’s final July meeting before the August recess is the “how.”  How did a project that aldermen had approved at every stage until it was derailed, so suddenly fall off the fast track and die in a 9-6 council vote?  Where was Mayor Tom Barrett – whose support for PabstCity urged it to the fast track in early July – when it came time to close the deal?

The obvious answer is Milwaukee is a city that hasn’t been a leader in putting together development deals, and certainly not one the size of PabstCity.  The impetus for PabstCity came from Cleveland – the Ferchill Group, an “urban niche developer” which envisions Milwaukee as an entertainment destination.  The project would have involved renovations and demolitions to the twenty buildings of the Pabst Brewery complex in a seven-block area on the north end of Downtown, with $41 million in city investment to help it along.

The less obvious answer is that Mayor Barrett, despite his public support for the project, didn’t want to expend the political capital to make PabstCity happen.  In short, and despite withholding records about the project until two days before the vote, the Barrett Administration didn’t want it.  His message to aldermen: Shit or get off the pot. They got off the pot.

Why was the project on the fast track?  Perhaps because of timing more than anything else, an urge to get it done before before the August recess and the ensuing fall budget cycle.

But now the deadline for July continuing campaign finance reports has come and gone for aldermen, and we can get a look at who’s been sticking money in their campaign coffers.  Throughout July, business owners and interests angling to avoid competing with the PabstCity monster moved in on the Common Council.  It’s time to start pulling campaign finance reports and start looking for casino money, Brady Street bucks and Downtown dough.   The unions weighed in too, condemning the project from the start because the Hines Common Council sniffed at proposals to guarantee prevailing wages for the work done, and goals for hiring Milwaukee labor and minority contractors.  

Ald. Mike D’Amato and others have long argued that the city needs to restructure how it does development.  The failure of Pabst, despite years of planning, is a case in point.  A poorly structured deal that speculates community and economic impact can only break down amid backroom wheeling and dealing.  In the end it came down to money.  There was more to be had for the players in the hall, one-time supporters of the deal such as Council Prez Willie Hines and Ald. Mike McGee, Jr., by opposing the deal than by supporting it.  

Petty?  These are aldermen, not heads of state.  Once the mayor let it dangle, loose ends and all, PabstCity didn’t stand a chance.