Hunzinger Construction propels riverfront taproom forward in Milwaukee

Construction of the Foxtown Landing, a taproom and restaurant on the Milwaukee River, is underway as different contractors face challenges of working on a small city site and building next to the water.

The Foxtown Landing project – developed by Tom Nieman, owner of Fromm Family Foods – calls for a 39,000-square-foot, three-story building on the corner of North Plankinton and West St. Paul avenues in Milwaukee. The project also includes an extension to the RiverWalk with a riverfront terrace and docks for small boats and kayaks.

Brookfield-based Hunzinger Construction is the project general contractor. Stephen Perry Smith Architects introduced the first taproom concept as early as November 2022 and returned to Third Ward Architectural Review Board with a third floor after redrawing plans. The board gave final approval in February 2024.

When crews ran test piles and studied the soil in September, they found water around 10 feet below the ground, said Ken Skowronski II, a field superintendent for Hunzinger. The construction team drilled wells in the cold and will bring in a pump system that will lower the water table, filter out the water and send it back to the river, Skowronski added.

Here’s a timeline of recent construction work. Taproom construction officially started in January 2025 and will wrap up in late 2026, project officials said.

• September 2024: Below grade work starts and crews find water about 10 feet down.
• Dec. 19: Hunzinger prepared the site for an earth retention system (ERS), a retaining wall that goes into the ground and outlines the building footprint
• Jan. 10: Brownsville-based Michels crews started installing the ERS. Michels is also contracted to work on the dock wall
• Feb. 24: Pile-driving will start to get the foundation ready, but construction teams will drill the earth and draw out water first
• April 2025: Pouring of concrete foundation will start. Oak Creek-based C.W. Purpero will perform excavation work ahead of foundation work.

Foxtown Landing will have entertainment venues, restaurants and bars on each floor

Foxtown Landing will have events space on the second and third floors, and a distillery, speakeasy and brides’ and grooms’ rooms in the lower level, said Gregg Thompson, owner of Thompson Project Management and owner’s representative for the developer. The first floor will have a restaurant and bar, with an indoor and outdoor bar and a walk-up window accessible from the north side of the building. Beer will be shipped in from Foxtown Brewery in Mequon, he added.

The second floor is designed for private parties and events in mind with another restaurant and bar, Thompson said. Each floor will have a kitchen, he added.

The third floor has a casual event space on the south end with a whiskey bar and the north end will have a Rat Pack-themed ballroom, Thompson noted.

The Foxtown series started in Mequon in 2019 with the opening of Foxtown Brewing, led by Fromm owner Tom Nieman, Thompson explained. Since then Nieman led the redevelopment of several more buildings, each with their own time period twist.

“(Tom Nieman’s) vision started with Foxtown Brewing in Mequon, by taking a building in the 1800s to the turn of the century,” Thompson said. “The second building in Mequon, the Foxtown Annex, takes you to the Roaring ‘20’s with Art Deco with themes that carry from the 1857 building. The next building, Foxtown Station, used be to an old icehouse. A lot of what you see in Mequon is going to be in this building, other than brewing beer,” he added.

Contractors work in close quarters

Contractors are only limited to the work area at 412 N. Plankinton Ave. and are right next to the Milwaukee River, an interstate off-ramp and an under-construction dog park next door. As the building comes up out of the ground, they will have to move their equipment to accommodate the new space.

The RiverWalk edge of the project will wrap up the same time as the taproom in late 2026, as it all needs to be in one package, Skowronski noted.

There were more than 30 workers on-site during the winter and it’s likely that there will be 90 construction workers on site in a given day during peak hours, Skowronski said.

North of the site, Butler-based Berghammer Construction is working on a separate dog park project led by two downtown business organizations. The 22,000-square-foot, around $2 million project is expected to wrap up in the first quarter of 2025.

Further north, Hunzinger Construction is also working on the overhaul of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater on the corner of North Water and East Wells Streets. In 2021, the company raised the roof of the American Family Insurance Amphitheater at the Summerfest grounds, the largest capital project in the festival’s history.