The Packers are usually topic number one in most of Wisconsin any time of year, but the Packers definitely made news Thursday. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

An upscale hotel, brew pub and public plaza would help anchor a proposed 34-acre mixed-use development next to Lambeau Field, with the Green Bay Packers seeking new forms of revenue and a better experience for the football team’s fans.

The long-awaited details of the project, called the Titletown District, were announced Thursday at a media conference.

It would amount to an investment of $120 million to $130 million, according to Packers officials. Groundbreaking is expected to occur this fall with work on roads and utilities, with the development’s initial phase to be completed by fall 2017.

“We’re very excited to share our vision for the Titletown District,” Packers President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Murphy said in a statement. “The public plaza, with its size and location near Lambeau Field, will be a draw that is very unique in our area and a wonderful public space for our community.”

Titletown District would be developed west of the stadium, south of Lombardi Ave. between Ridge Road and Marlee Lane, in Ashwaubenon.

The district’s anchors would include an upscale Lodge Kohler hotel, operated by Kohler Co.; a Hinterland restaurant and craft brewery, and a sports medicine clinic owned by Green Bay-based Bellin Health Care Systems. Those buildings would use eight acres.

There also would be a 10-acre public plaza that would be a site for game day festivities. It would be similar to a park, with year-round fitness-related activities, cultural opportunities, event space, an outdoor ice skating rink and Packers-inspired public art.

Such public plazas are becoming a big part of developments created next to sports arenas and stadiums.

A park-like plaza is being created in downtown Minneapolis, next to the new U.S. Bank Stadium that’s under construction for the Minnesota Vikings. That work will be completed in time for the 2016 football season.

Also, a public plaza is being proposed by the Milwaukee Bucks and city officials to be created between the basketball team’s planned new arena and entertainment center, on downtown Milwaukee’s west side.

Titletown District’s remaining 16 acres would feature additional commercial and retail buildings, as well as a residential area. Details on those future phases aren’t yet available.

The Lodge Kohler would be on Ridge Road, and include a bar and restaurant, an indoor/outdoor pool, a spa and fitness facility, and an outdoor area featuring tented event space.

Hinterland’s new facility would be 20,000 square feet, nearly four times larger than the current Green Bay restaurant and brewery. It would feature a brew pub and restaurant, with retractable walls, heated concrete and heat lamps to create outdoor dining that faces the public plaza. It would be on the corner of Lombardi Ave. and Ridge St.

Bellin Health would operate a nearly 30,000-square-foot facility focusing on injury prevention, performance improvement, and treatment and therapy for sports injuries. It would include lab, medical imaging, sports nutrition and sports psychology services.

Click here to see the flyover video.

Vic Ketchman adds:

Curly Lambeau was a man of vision, but he couldn’t possibly have seen this coming.

The football team Lambeau founded, which played its first season on a roped off field that had no seats, will begin the 2017 season in a stadium bordered by one of the most aggressive real estate developments in all of professional sports. …

Packers Vice President and Legal Counsel Ed Policy said the Packers have invested $65 million into the land acquisition and infrastructure costs of the project, and estimates the combined investment by the Packers and their three partners (Kohler, Bellin and Hinterland) will be $120-$130 million.

“That’s just the beginning. The investment will continue to grow. We want to enhance the community and make sure the Packers stay in strong financial position,” Policy said. …

“Through a lot of twists and turns in seven years, we’re really excited,” Murphy said.

Somewhere I have a copy of an excellent departed business magazine that had a cover story in 2010 about the Packers’ plans around the Lambeau Field neighborhood. That story included the seemingly unlikely idea of soccer, baseball and softball fields being built in the neighborhood, possibly hosting high school postseason events. That is not part of this plan, but this plan only includes the 34 acres west of Lambeau Field and south of Lombardi Avenue. I believe the Packers also own a lot of land south of Lambeau Field, as well as south of the Titletown District.

Anyone who has been to Lambeau Field knows that the neighborhood is certainly not unpleasant, but it’s not exactly upscale. There are strip malls along the south side of Lombardi Avenue now, and there are homes on the north side of Lombardi Avenue, immediately south of Lambeau Field, and along Ridge Avenue, which borders Lombardi Avenue to the west. Oneida Street, on the east side of Lambeau Field, is pretty small-scale industrial as well, and paper mills aren’t far away down Lombardi Avenue.

This is a necessity because of other NFL owners looking to maximize their investments, chiefly the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones. Under the current NFL revenue-sharing formula, NFL teams do not have to share revenues generated by their stadiums or stadium area outside of game ticket sales. Every stadium is supposed to be a revenue-generating machine now, but revenue isn’t limited to the stadium anymore.

The great thing is that none of this will detract at all from the game-day experience in a stadium that other NFL teams can’t figure out how to duplicate.