Broadway District Green Bay: What's Taking Shape Now

Walk down Broadway on a Wednesday evening and you'll pass the farmers market stalls, catch the smell of brisket drifting out of a storefront that didn't exist seven months ago, and step around the same fenced-off building that's sat behind construction fencing since its 2024 groundbreaking. The building is planned as a new downtown destination, while the surrounding district continues to change.

The Green Bay Public Market was announced in January 2022 as a conversion of the old Fort Square building at 211 North Broadway into a market hall with local vendors, produce, and prepared food. Its timeline has changed several times. Looking at the project's milestones alongside changes on the ground offers a view of how the neighborhood continues to develop.

The project's evolving timeline

Here's how the project's own milestones have moved, in order:

1. January 2022 — On Broadway Inc. announces the Old Fort Square conversion.
2. October 2024 — A formal groundbreaking is held, with the budget estimated around $18.3 million and an opening still eyed near the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay.
3. June 2025 — The opening is pushed to 2026. The project's cost has climbed to roughly $22 million.
4. January 2026 — Green Bay's Redevelopment Authority grants another extension, this time requiring construction to be completed and occupancy approved by December 31, 2027.
5. April and May 2026 — On Broadway confirms the mid-to-late 2027 target still holds, even after the state awarded less than 10 percent of a requested $2 million grant toward the project.

That's three separate extensions since the project was first announced in 2022, and a budget that grew by nearly $4 million in the roughly eight months between the groundbreaking and the announcement that the 2025 NFL Draft target wouldn't hold after all. In a WBAY report, On Broadway president Brian Johnson explained why the organization keeps pushing forward rather than walking away: "the longer you hold, you have holding costs." The nonprofit already owns the building, pays the property taxes, and covers the utilities whether the doors are open or not.

That detail matters more than it looks. The financing behind the project runs through tax increment financing, which is a pay-as-you-go structure. A FOX 11 report quoted Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich at the January 2026 extension hearing: "there isn't any local taxpayer money that's been sent to that project as of yet." The city only sends money once the building's assessed value actually rises, so the ongoing project is mostly costing On Broadway itself right now, not the city budget. If you've been wondering whether your property tax bill is quietly funding a building that still has plywood over its windows, the answer so far is no.

The district kept moving on its own schedule

As the Public Market's timeline changed, businesses on the surrounding blocks continued opening and moving on their own schedules.

High Kaliber Craft Kitchen opened at 126 South Broadway in January 2026, a few blocks from the market site. It started as a seasoning company, grew into a food truck, and finally landed a storefront serving Texas-style barbecue: chopped brisket sandwiches, a grilled cheese loaded with brisket and jalapeño called the Texas Twinkie, and layered "Mac Bowls" that stack cornbread, brisket beans, and smoked mac and cheese in one dish.

A few doors up at 240 North Broadway, two different businesses moved in during early 2025, well before the market's own timeline had even reached its first public delay. Irish Temper, a new pub from Tony Wiltgen, who also owns the nearby White Dog, opened as what the district called Green Bay's newest pub, built around a curated list of beers, whiskeys, and cocktails. FiveThumbsUp landed in the same building after the Cannery Test Kitchen, its previous home, closed. Owner Jill Schultz kept her cheesecake flights and cake pops and expanded the menu once she had her own storefront instead of a shared incubator space.

All three businesses were already part of Broadway before the Public Market opened.

Copper State Brewing, a longtime fixture just steps from the construction site, has stayed open as the Public Market project has continued. Its owners have said publicly they're excited about what the finished market will eventually bring to the block.

And the Wednesday Farmers Market on Broadway, the event the city itself points to as the district's signature draw, never paused for any of this. It's been running on its own weekly rhythm since long before Old Fort Square had a fence around it, pulling people downtown regardless of what's under construction two blocks over.

The district invested in itself elsewhere too

On Broadway marked its 30th year running the district in 2025, and its own account of that year leans on projects that had nothing to do with the market building. A Milwaukee Brewers mural went up. The Christkindlmarket expanded. A pavilion is underway in Leicht Park following a 2025 groundbreaking, and a separate Shipyard redevelopment project, sitting along the west bank of the Fox River near the Mason Street bridge, has moved forward on its own multi-phase plan for a great lawn, a dog park, and eventually a commercial plaza for food and retail.

The district has continued building in several directions at once, with the Public Market as one piece among many. Together, these projects offer a broader view of what has been happening in the district.

What this actually tells you about Broadway

The lesson here isn't that the Public Market is a bad idea or that it won't eventually open. On Broadway's own numbers suggest it still might, sometime in the back half of 2027, assuming the current extension holds. The lesson is that the character of this stretch of downtown Green Bay was never actually tied to that single building's fate.

If you've been considering a visit to High Kaliber or Irish Temper, those businesses are part of Broadway's current mix. Alongside the Public Market project, their storefronts help shape what Broadway feels like to walk through today, one relocation and one grand opening at a time.

A neighborhood's identity often takes shape through a mix of major projects and the everyday decisions of the people and businesses that make it their own.

If you're thinking about putting down roots closer to this stretch of Green Bay, or just want a read on how a neighborhood like Broadway actually behaves before you commit to it, that's exactly the kind of on-the-ground knowledge Batterman Integrity Group works from every day. Schedule a free consultation and home valuation with our team and we'll walk you through what a block like this is really like to live near, not just what's been announced for it.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.