Will Milwaukee be a boom town or a ghost town during the RNC? Cleveland provides clues.
CLEVELAND — In the last city to host a full-blown Republican National Convention, the big economic windfall that some local businesses expected to come with it never materialized, a picture that could play out in Milwaukee when the convention arrives in mid-July.
As in Milwaukee, Cleveland leaders sold the convention in 2016 as a major economic driver that would bring around $200 million into the regional economy and be good for local businesses.
But in Cleveland, the last place to hold an in-person RNC eight years ago, the economic impact of the four-day convention was felt unevenly and depended on factors that were sometimes outside of an individual business' control. Some businesses were able to cash in on the more than 40,000 visitors in town, while others ultimately lost out and got less business than a typical summer day.
A similar picture could play out in Milwaukee, where some bars and restaurants have not seen the private bookings they expected would come flooding in for the convention, set to take place July 15-18 at Fiserv Forum, UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee.
If Cleveland's experience is any guide, bars and restaurants inside the security zone in Milwaukee could see heavy foot traffic and crowds, while those outside the zone but close enough to the convention to keep regulars away might see a drop in business, if they aren't near visitors' hotels.
Businesses in Cleveland's security zone and close to the convention were 'very busy'
In Cleveland, bars and restaurants within the security zone immediately surrounding the convention site, then called the Quicken Loans Arena, reported a jump in business during the convention.
"We were very busy," said Nick Kostis, owner of Pickwick and Frolic, which houses a bar, restaurant and comedy club less than a five-minute walk from the former Quicken Loans Arena. "We had a record-breaking week."
Pickwick and Frolic had a three-day private event scheduled in its lower-level martini bar and cabaret room, and the surrounding area was so busy that its restaurant also was bustling with politicos, convention visitors and media types, Kostis said.
"We were in an area that was heavily trafficked," he said.
Pickwick and Frolic is on East Fourth Street, a fixture of downtown Cleveland's nightlife lined with popular bars and restaurants. It acted as "a kind of through street to the convention" less than two blocks away, Kostis said.
"It's a very narrow, compact, intimate little street," he said. "Five hundred people on that street would make you feel like you were on Times Square. So the density was there, plus the human interaction, just rubbing elbows with people."
Others within the security zone but farther from the action had mixed results.
Andi Udris, managing member of Hofbr?uhaus Cleveland, said his restaurant was "one of the lucky ones" that got to do business with the RNC because of its large venue, capable of seating over 700 people.
It booked a few private events during the convention that guaranteed enough money for that week, Udris said. But besides those events, it was "a very slow week," he said. The Hofbr?uhaus was within the security zone but about a 15-minute walk from the convention sites.
"Everybody just disappeared," Udris said. "But for the conventioneers, I think they had a great time. This was a group from all over the country that had no reason to come to Cleveland, and they were all really surprised about how nice the town was."
Even in the week before and the week after the convention, his restaurant experienced a drop in business, a kind of hangover effect that Udris couldn't entirely explain.
"It was just like you were in a ghost town," he said.
Nearby neighborhoods were avoided by locals, missed by convention-goers
Bars and restaurants near the convention site but not close enough to be within the security zone also saw a drop in business during the four-day convention, largely attributed to locals staying away and convention-goers not venturing outside of the security zone.
Businesses that lost out included ones in Cleveland's Ohio City, a typically bustling neighborhood that turned into a "ghost town" during the convention, despite being a mere mile and a half from the convention site on the other side of the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland city councilmen and business owners said.
"We did not see that domino effect that we thought we were going to see," said longtime Cleveland City Councilman Michael D. Polensek.
During the four days of the convention, Nate's Deli, a restaurant in Ohio City that serves Mediterranean food, saw a fraction of the business it normally would, said owner Ghassan Maalouf.
The surrounding neighborhood was "completely dead," Maalouf said, an aberration from the typical hubbub of the area on a summer week with nice weather.
Ohio City could be likened to Milwaukee's Third Ward. West 25th Street, its main thoroughfare where Nate's Deli is located, is dotted with bars and restaurants and even a public market called the West Side Market.
Maalouf had filed for a liquor license and made extra preparations for what he thought would be an unusually busy week. But business was so slow that he ended up closing early during the convention, instead of staying open later, as planned.
"We get more business when there’s sporting events happening. This was supposed to be a huge boon and it turned out to be nothing," he said.
Just down the street is Market Garden Brewery, one of several bars and restaurants owned by Sam McNulty. He remembers the mood going into the convention as "doom and gloom." Clevelanders were warned not to come downtown, and downtown businesses were telling their employees to work from home, he said.
"All of our regular business completely vaporized," he said.
Luckily, he said, his businesses had some private events booked during the convention. But ultimately, business wasn't what he was expecting and didn't make up for the loss of his normal business, especially since he had staffed for bigger crowds and longer hours.
Businesses in Cleveland's Ohio City were not alone in that experience, Cleveland City Councilman Kerry McCormack said.
"Outside of a couple streets of businesses right in that core area in the (security) zone that I'm sure did very well, a lot of neighborhoods … were extremely disappointed," he said.
In Milwaukee, not a lot of action on RNC bookings
Some Milwaukee business owners, including in the Third Ward — a 20- to 30-minute walk from the convention venues — are worried about a similar dynamic playing out. Some are surprised they don't have any events booked for the four days of the RNC.
"We've gotten not a single inquiry," said chef Dan Jacobs, co-owner of DanDan in the Third Ward, a James Beard Award nominee and a finalist on the latest season of Bravo's "Top Chef" competition show. "(For) the DNC, we were getting nine, 10, 12 months out, we were getting inquiries, (potential) bookings. ... Now, there isn't a lot of action."
He worries that business will be dead during the convention.
"What's scary is that it's the busiest month of our year, and my gut tells me that the vast majority of our regulars and people that live in the area are going to probably get out of town," he said. "(And) I just don't see our regular customers coming from the suburbs into the city to have dinner."
DanDan plans to stay open a few hours later than normal during the convention, in case convention-goers do come, but Jacobs said he doesn't know what to expect.
"I think we were all expecting this boon of having the RNC here. I don't think I'm a unicorn in this situation. I feel like there's a lot of small business owners who have event spaces and restaurants and bars are feeling the same thing that I am," he said. "Literally none of us know what's going to happen."
Several bars along North King Drive, very close to the convention venues, reported as of mid-June they didn't have any bookings for the four-day convention. They included Who's On Third, Oak Barrel, Third Street Tavern, LP, Camp Bar and Old German Beer Hall.
"We are not the usual suspect for bookings, but (for) the DNC we had inquiries before COVID hit," Old German Beer Hall owner Han Weissgerber said. "If I was hearing that my neighbors were booked out, I'd be like, 'Alright, that’s awesome. We can get scraps.' But if the bigger fish aren’t getting anything, what the hell am I supposed to expect?"
In Cleveland, some delegates saw more of suburbs than downtown
In Cleveland, some businesses far away from the convention area saw benefits.
Waverly Willis, owner of Urban Kutz Barbershop in Cleveland, said his barbershop got a boost in business related to the convention from event crews, political staffers and others looking for a haircut.
"It also was a boost in Google and Yelp ratings," he said.
Other businesses, including some near hotels in outlying suburbs where delegations stayed, benefited, said Polensek, the longtime Cleveland councilman.
“Some of the venues farther out of the city did better than venues that were right there near the convention," he said.
Polensek said some of the delegates would be bused into the convention, stay for the business of the convention and then be bused back to their hotels, without exploring the area surrounding the convention.
McNulty, the brewery owner in Ohio City who saw a drop in business during the RNC, had some advice for Milwaukee. He said to encourage local residents to go downtown during the convention and support local businesses.
"It's democracy at work, and yeah, the current candidate might not be everybody's favorite, but at the end of the day, the process is worth seeing up close, and it's a special opportunity for Milwaukee to showcase to the world what makes Milwaukee unique," he said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What Milwaukee businesses can learn from Cleveland hosting 2016 RNC
