Packers announce development plans with hotel, brewery, restaurant for area near Lambeau Field

The Green Bay Packers unveiled plans Thursday for a four-star hotel, brewery and restaurant, sports medicine facility and a 10-acre public plaza on team property west of Lambeau Field dubbed the Titletown District.

The three anchor tenants will be the 150-room Lodge Kohler hotel, run by the plumbing-and-hospitality company Kohler Co., Hinterland brewery, and Bellin Health, a major Packers sponsor. Packers officials said at a news conference that they hand-picked the three tenants. Each is a premium Wisconsin name, said Ed Policy, the team's vice president and general counsel.

"It was important to us that they commit to use Titletown as a major growth platform," Policy said.

The public plaza will include an ice skating pond in winter, an event area and a football field-sized green space. A replica of Bart Starr's Super Bowl ring will greet visitors to the plaza. The district will also feature retail and family entertainment businesses, and luxury townhouses with patios backing up onto the public plaza.

The Packers own more than 65 acres around Lambeau Field in the village of Ashwaubenon. Team leaders said the first phase of development around the stadium includes 34 acres to the west.

Kohler hosted the PGA Championship last week at its Whistling Straits golf course in Sheboygan.

"This is the first (hotel) we've built from scratch outside of Kohler," said Herbert Kohler Jr., chairman of the company. "It's going to be a product we think we might be able to take elsewhere. It's an excellent place to start."

Hinterland's new brewery and restaurant will be nearly four times larger than the site it will vacate in downtown Green Bay. Owner Bill Tressler choked up at the news conference, saying he "can't think of a better place to grow business than in the shadow of Lambeau."

Work could start this year, with anticipated openings by the anchor tenants before the start of the 2017 football season.