Milwaukee Recreation breaks ground on $54 million recreation center

Listen to this article

A $54 million project for Milwaukee Recreation, which will include an indoor pool, gymnasium and community classrooms, has broken ground in northwest Milwaukee.

Officials from the city of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Public Schools and CG Schmidt turned over dirt on a 7.5-acre lot in celebration of a future 101,735-square-foot recreation center at 5575 N. 76th St. The site is home to the MKE REC Community Center and Browning Playfield, southwest of the intersection of North 76th Street and West Silver Spring Drive.

The project will include a smorgasbord of activities from indoor basketball courts to fitness classrooms, and splash pads to tennis and pickleball courts. Officials said it will open opportunities for young people in the area, and was designed through extensive community surveys and listening sessions.

CG Schmidt‘s construction contract is for $52.1 million and MPS’ construction contract is $1.9 million, project officials said. It’s considered a brownfield redevelopment, and crews will knock down a former kindergarten building and additions to the former Browning School and Playfield. However, the former district school, built in 1876, will remain.

The entire 7.5-acre property outside the school will be redone, including the softball field, said Glenn Kirby, construction manager for Milwaukee-based Diamond Discs International. Even the cracked parking lot will be repaved.

Vertical construction will involve digging down, which means the finished building will have four stories.

The existing building has three floors, and new construction will start a floor below, said Joe Kwiatkowski, superintendent at CG Schmidt. The new building will be built up with mechanicals to match the existing three-story building. The lower floor will hold the indoor pool.

The 16-month project is expected to open around Feb. 2027, Kirby added.

Project partners include CG Schmidt, Quorum Architects, Concord Group and Stantec, and all groups will oversee different project areas. Diamond Discs, which started as a construction equipment supplier, will work as a construction manager with CG Schmidt. The company launched its construction division around four years ago and its first major project was for Northwestern Mutual, said Ugo Nwagbaraocha, president of Diamond Discs International.

“Today, we’re breaking ground on a project that will bring real opportunity, connection and joy to this community,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at the groundbreaking. “This is going to be an impressive facility in the northwest side of Milwaukee. As an alderman (covering the district) previously, the further north and west you go outside the city center, opportunities like this, they dry up. Those who have had the opportunity to visit the [Beulah Brinton Community Center] on the south side, you know how valuable a place like this is in communities. We’re going to bring that same energy and investment to the northwest side.”