As negotiations continue between reps of Wisconsin, the Bucks and the city and county of Milwaukee over ways to finance a new $500M downtown arena, the city is "seeking a separate development agreement with the franchise," according to sources cited by Don Walker of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. The separate agreement is "part of a strategy by the city to ensure the Bucks will live up to statements team officials have made" that the proposed downtown arena could generate an additional $500M in "ancillary development, much of it in the largely vacant Park East corridor." When the Bucks made public their plans for the new arena, team officials said that the venue "could provide a catalytic boost" to as much as $500M in development in the "form of new office space, more housing, restaurants, bars and perhaps a hotel." Bucks co-Owner Wes Edens has said that he "planned to personally invest in the development." Sources said that the city "wants assurances that development will happen in conjunction with a new arena" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/19). In Wisconsin, Mark Schaaf noted with "hard feelings over the Miller Park tax still lingering in Racine County, area legislators initially raised the alarm over public financing" for the new arena in Milwaukee. But as talks have "progressed without a regional tax on the table, concerns appear to be subsiding for some Racine County legislators, while others are critical of the negotiations" (Racine JOURNAL TIMES, 5/18).
