A vacant Deer District parcel will soon become home to a shared-use athletic facility for Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Plans call for a 28,000-square-foot double-court gymnasium that seats up to 1,000, a fitness center, locker rooms, concessions, meeting rooms and other amenities to primarily serve MATC’s fitness and health programs and athletics teams, including men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball. It will also provide training facilities for all students and staff.
The $91 million project will encompass slightly over 340,000 square feet and will include 269 market-rate apartments owned by the developer and located above the athletic facility. Construction on the project is expected to begin this summer and take about 18 months to complete.
MATC has entered into a lease agreement for the construction of the facility near the college’s Downtown campus. The facility will be co-developed and co-owned by the Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee real estate developer J. Jeffers & Co.
“We’re so excited for this facility. More than anything it’s about the transformative opportunities that it’ll provide to our students and the community,” MATC President Tony Cruz said. “We have some amazing student-athletes who will take advantage of this new facility, in addition to our other students.”
Cruz began his tenure as the 11th president of MATC in July 2024 after serving as president of the Kendall Campus of Miami Dade College in Florida.
“When I first arrived here in Milwaukee and I looked at some of our facilities, I knew that we could do better,” said Cruz, who was flanked by MATC student-athletes at a Wednesday morning press conference at Gather, a Deer District venue that overlooks the project site. “This has been in the works for about 15 months, and I’m so glad that this is finally coming to fruition.”
The project is a “great next step toward delivering a facility that our student-athletes and entire college community deserves,” he said. “Students and the community have indicated the importance of sports and delivering healthy entertainment outlets to enhance the student experience. That this is being built in Deer District is a bonus because of its notoriety, convenience and quality this will bring.”
Plans also call for an additional 13,000 square feet of street-level, mixed-use commercial space and an outdoor public plaza near the southwest corner of McKinley Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The facility will include a 290-space parking structure.
“This is a neighborhood full of enthusiasm,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said.
Cruz noted MATC’s “great success” in recent years in athletics. MATC’s Stormers men’s basketball team won its first National Junior College Athletic Association Division II championship in 2023. The 2024 women’s volleyball team won its first NJCAA Region 4 District Championship, earning its first trip to the NJCAA Division II national tournament. Other MATC athletic teams are moving up to NJCAA Division II, meaning that the college can offer students additional athletic scholarships, Cruz said.
The new development is not the first time that MATC, the Bucks and J. Jeffers & Co. have joined forces for a project in the neighborhood. The redevelopment of Journal Square Block, which included the creation of student housing for MATC, marked the beginning of the partnership.
“We’re thrilled that this development will continue to redefine Downtown Milwaukee,” said Michael Belot, senior vice president of business operations and chief real estate development officer for the Bucks.
