The Milwaukee Public Market announced today that its reconfigured daily parking lot has reopened ahead of schedule.
"The market has experienced steady traffic since the project began and we expect those numbers to climb as a result of the lot reopening," said Paul Schwartz, the Public Market’s Operation and Communication Manager. "There is ample parking in the Third Ward, and we feel adding these extra 75 spaces will only increase the traffic in the neighborhood."
The parking lot closed temporarily when construction on the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) I-794 Lake Freeway project began on Jan. 9. The reopened lot has roughly the same number of daily parking spaces since market employees and monthly parkers were moved to a remote lot on North 2nd Street and West Clybourn Street.
"The credit mainly goes to the workers who worked day and night in some very challenging weather conditions to open the parking lot as fast as possible, as well as to the high level of coordination between everyone involved," said Carolynn Gellings, Hoan Bridge and Lake Freeway Project Manager.
Earlier this month, the market announced that gross vendor sales increased from $9,753,881 in 2012 to $11,656,781 in 2013. In addition, the number of customer visits to the market increased from 1,170,321 to 1,261,037, keeping the market in the top tier of destinations in the region.
The market, in cooperation with the Historic Third Ward Association and the DOT, has instituted a free parking shuttle operation throughout the neighborhood to help ease any parking issues caused by the project. Information about the shuttle route and parking options can be found at MarketParkingProject.com.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
