MILWAUKEE — One of Milwaukee's oldest neighborhoods is experiencing a revival. New concert venues, new stores, and new neighbors are all coming to Milwaukee's Concordia community.
“This neighborhood feels very alive," Barry Weber, the president of the neighborhood organization Historic Concordia Neighborhood, Inc., said.
A nearly 100-year-old concert hall, that once was a strip club, will once again host artists. New cafes are offering healthy food to nearby residents.
“I'm very interested in redeveloping the Near West Side because it has so much potential," John Hennessy, a real estate developer, said.
Longtime neighbors are welcoming their new neighbors with welcome arms.
“We call our friends and neighbors 'freighbors' because we all like each other a lot, and this is such a great community to live in," longtime neighbor Sally Wigel said.
This revival is happening adjacent to some of the oldest houses in the city. Concordia is where many industry leaders and beer barons built their homes. The Pabst Family built multiple mansions in and around the neighborhood. The Usingers, of Usinger Sausage, and former Milwaukee Mayor Daniel Hoan, all lived in the area.
Today, Concordia is a diverse and growing neighborhood.
“Hello, this is Barry Weber, and welcome to the Historic Concordia neighborhood. This is My Block.”
I met with Barry so he could show me his neighborhood through his eyes and experiences. Everywhere we went and who we talked to was all up to him. Welcome to the Historic Concordia neighborhood.
Barry Weber
“Since my wife and I moved in 11 years ago, we've always just felt that tight sense of community here," Barry Weber said.
He moved to the neighborhood with his wife, in part, thanks to a city initiative.
“What is just so cool about all these homes is that at one point in this neighborhood’s history, they were all in danger of being razed.”
Buildings would be left vacant and eventually deteriorate over the course of decades. Instead of tearing down the buildings, a different plan was hatched. The City of Milwaukee and various non-profits would refurbish old and degrading homes. Then they would sell it for affordable prices. Barry and his wife bought a rehabbed house that was built in 1892.
“There are a lot of homes in this neighborhood that were in danger of either being razed or in various states of disrepair over the years. So many different groups and activists purchased, rehabbed, and sold them back to others so the neighborhood could stay strong.”
Weber has stayed in the neighborhood because of the close-knit community. He quickly became an active member of the neighborhood committee and was eventually selected as the president.
It's people like his neighbor Sally Wiberg that help create a tightly bonded community.
Sally Wiberg
Sally has lived in the neighborhood for nearly 40 years. She takes it upon herself to greet all the new neighbors.
“I power walk around the neighborhood. That’s my exercise, so I get to see all the new people moving in randomly," Wiberg said.
Her work doesn't go unnoticed, either. Weber sees how effective Wiberg is when it comes to greeting the new neighbors.
“She is the one who, anytime someone is new to the neighborhood and she gets wind of it, she is knocking on their door, signing them up on our neighborhood listserv, emailing me about how I can reach out to them," Weber said.
To make a successful community, you have to get people engaged. Wiberg is the first step in that process. She invites people to get involved, or at the very least stay up to date with what's happening in Concordia.
“I try to get them hooked into the fabric of the neighborhood as soon as I can," Wiberg said.
Wiberg moved to the area in 1985. Similar to how Weber came to the neighborhood, she was a beneficiary of the home rehabilitation projects.
"(The city was) totally rehabbing all these houses. Our house was actually condemned at the time, and they were rehabbing it," she said.
Wiberg knew little about the neighborhood except that the house she hoped to buy was affordable. Almost 40 years later, she is still in the same home.
"I just can't imagine leaving the people that live around here. They've just become so important in our life," she said.
One of those new neighbors who has quickly become part of the Concordia family is Gonza Kaijage.
Gonza Kaijage
“Normally, I like to move places, fix them up, and then rent them out. But then I ended up staying here longer because, one, this needed more things to fix, and two, I just liked the neighborhood so much. I like my neighbors. I mean, I knew my neighbors. I didn’t know my neighbors in Washington Heights. I had no clue who they were," she said.
As soon as she moved to Concordia she was met with friendlier neighbors than she was ever accustomed to.
“When I got here, it was like I got people knocking on my door for backyard cheese and crackers," Kaijage said. “You’re knocking on my door, asking me how my day was. Like, what the hell is wrong with you? But, you know, after a while, I realized this is like a little pocket that feels just like I'm in the suburbs.”
For someone who was a chronic mover, staying in one place was a new experience for Kaijage. It took her a little bit of time to get used to the surprise visitors, but soon enough she warmed up to it all.
“So a lot of us neighbors, it’s not even just talking to each other on the street. We're actually talking to each other through cell phones all the time. I spoke to Barry like three times in the past week for no reason.”
Succesful neighborhoods don't just have committed residents. Ideally, there is a strong commercial corridor too. In Concordia, old businesses are being revived alongside new business starting up.
The New State
What was once a venerated concert venue ended up as a dilapitated building that was partially burnt from a major fire. However, that same building is being restored to its full glory.
The New State will be a community hub for music making, mentorship, and of course, performances.
“To catalyze neighborhood redevelopment, but more than that, it's to work with the youth of the community," John Hennessy, the developer of the construction project, said.
The New State was originally built in 1920. It wasa silent movie venue, big band music club, rock venue, and strip club. When it was a rock venue, bands like Metallica, Tom Petty, U2, Joan Jett, The Ramones, and AC/DC all played there.
The building closed its doors in the 1990s after a brief stint as a strip club called Hoops. In 2017, a fire scorched the inside. Then in 2018, a group of investors came together to purchase the building. The plan is to revive it and name the development The New State. It's estimated the cost will be about $14 million, according to Hennessy.
A majority of the money will go to rehabbing the building. Some funds will be allocated for installing all the equipment necessary to make The New State a premier music making and performance venue.
“(The youth) can possibly have a career in music and music production. They'll be—for example, in this theater space, there will be three recording studios, and the nonprofit will have a mentoring operation," Hennessy said.
Local artists are already excited to play in the space.
“This space is incredible. There's so much potential for cool things to happen. There's a lot of history in this room. You kind of just feel it when you walk in," Tlalok Rodriguez, a Milwaukee musician, said.
The New State team is excited to bring this level of development and investment to the west side of the city.
“I think this is such a centrally located hub that if you had an all-ages safe space that had a theater, recording studios, and a mentoring operation with opportunities for curriculum and teaching skills that could turn into paid opportunities in the music industry, this would be something that Milwaukee has never had," Dima Pochtarev, the executive director at West Side Arts Unlimited, said.
It's not just old business getting a makeover. New businesses are contributing to the neighborhood's growth.
Fruition MKE
“I dreamed of having a cafe in my neighborhood. I live within five minutes walking distance from here, so I didn't know I would be the one to have the actual cafe I can walk to in my neighborhood," Tiffany Miller, the owner of Fruition MKE, said.
Fruition MKE opened in 2024. It's a cafe, co-working location, event center, and makerspace.
What motivated Miller the most was bringing healthy food to her neighborhood.
“All individuals deserve to have healthy food options in their neighborhood, and Fruition is one of those spaces that's able to provide that within walking distance for so many people.”
Her business is located in the Concordia 27 building. The renovation project cost about $20 million. It took a vacant building and turned it into a community hub for entrepreneurs like Miller, so they could have the chance to open their own businesses. The building also contains affordable housing units.
Miller hopes that with these developments happening around Concordia, her neighborhood can experience economic growth like other communities in the city.
“I love the amenities that other neighborhoods have: the coffee shop, a place to grab some apparel, and really a place to grab healthy food," Miller said. “I want those types of things to exist here because it's a beautiful thing, and it's an amenity that the neighborhood deserves.”
One Last Question
As is tradition, the last word is always given to the tour guide of the My Block story. In this episode, that's Barry Weber.
Before that happens, here is how you can be part of the award-winning series. Reach out to me, James Groh, to nominate your neighborhood or a neighbor to be featured in the next story. You can fill out this submission form or contact me at james.groh@tmj4.com or call/text at (414) 254-8145. The series covers all types of neighborhoods and communities. Previous examples include stories on life in the Sherman Park neighborhood, a rural town that emphasizes hiring people with disabilities, how one woman is keeping a watchful eye on her neighborhood, how Hmong culture in Wisconsin is changing, how Latino immigrants adapt to life in Milwaukee, and many more. Watch one of the 30 other My Block stories here.
“Is there anything else you’d like to say about your neighborhood?” I asked Weber.
“We contain multitudes.”
Watch the story of Concordia's revival...
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