The sports-centered Titletown development captured the country’s attention from April 24 through 26 this year. That’s when the NFL held its 2025 draft at the Green Bay, Wisconsin, development that sits outside historic Lambeau Field.
And what did NFL fans see? A vibrant community development that features everything from a sprawling public park, tubing hill and winter skating rink to a four-diamond hotel, sports medicine clinic, restaurant, bank and venture capital firm. Titletown also includes luxury apartments, townhomes and the seven-story U.S. Venture Center office tower.
Yes, Titletown offers a wide variety of experiences. And it’s a thriving community, even on days in which the Green Bay Packers aren’t playing.
Titletown isn’t alone, though. Cities across the Midwest, including Milwaukee, Detroit and Minneapolis, have invested in sports-focused mixed-use developments, developments that bring everything from multifamily housing, bars and restaurants to office buildings and hotels to the neighborhoods surrounding already busy sports stadiums.
Developers and architects say that they expect more sports-centered developments to pop up across the United States. These projects have been too successful at attracting visitors, residents and businesses for developers and cities to ignore.
Midwest Real Estate News recently spoke with Ben Donsky, principal with real estate and urban development company Agora Partners, which has offices in Los Angeles and New York City. Agora Partners focused on activating and programming the public space of Titletown, making sure that the development offers activities and attractions designed to attract visitors even when football games aren’t happening.
Agora Partners also worked on managing the business model and customer experience for some of Titletown’s key amenities, including the tubing hill and ice rink and the development’s food and beverage facilities.
We asked Donsky about the reasons behind Titletown’s success and why sports-centered developments have become so popular. Here is some of what he had to say.
Sports-centered developments like Titletown seem to be thriving today. How have these types of developments evolved over the years?
Ben Donsky: There has been an evolution from the first generation of sports-adjacent developments. That first generation of developments, which you can trace back to Camden Yards in Baltimore and the adjacent Power Plant district, focused on restaurants and bars and on enhancing the gameday experience. The second generation of these projects like Titletown are trying to create real neighborhoods that integrate places to live and work in addition to the restaurants and bars for game days.
A place like Titletown really does seem like a live/work/play development.
Donsky: A place like Titletown combines the emotional connection that fans have to their teams with community-oriented programs and events to make these districts into daily destinations.
The gameday events and programs will draw people to the development regardless. One of the keys to success at these developments, though, is the ability to flex between gamedays and non-gamedays and accommodate both kinds of crowds and different volumes of people.
Titletown doesn’t feel like it’s vacant when it’s not a gameday because there are people living and working there and people visiting the public spaces and retail offerings. Titletown includes apartments and townhouses. They really introduced a new top tier of quality into both of those product types for this market. In addition, the development features creative office space that has some incredible amenities, not to mention spectacular views of Lambeau Field.
What makes these sports-centered developments so popular to visitors?
Donsky: This fundamental emotional attachment that people have with their teams is a real draw. Prior to developments such as Titletown, a lot of these teams had already developed engaging hall-of-fames, museums and other exhibits to extend the stays of their fans and improve the visitor experience to their stadiums. These sports-centered developments are a logical expansion of that.
Teams can leverage those emotional connections into new revenue streams. But they can also create these fantastic experiences that will help strengthen their relationships with existing fans. They can turn casual fans into diehard fans and bring in a new generation of fans who might not have otherwise engaged with the teams at all.
Look at what the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA are doing with the Deer District development in Milwaukee. That is one of the most ambitious if not the most ambitious sports-centered developments you’ll see.
Do you think we’ll continue to see sports-focused developments pop up across the country?
Donsky: It’s a trend that will continue. Every city wants one of these. There are plans being considered in cities like New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. It’s the same in markets like Denver, Kansas City and Nashville. The real question is what will each market support?
New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago can support a lot of new development. Nashville has seen a lot of growth over the last decade. There are questions, though, with the current capital markets environment if all of these projects can move forward.
What features should these developments have to increase their chances of success?
Donsky: When you look at the most successful developments, they are all organized around an actively programmed public space. The more that public space is oriented toward attracting the general public, the more successful a development has been.
Those public spaces are important components. You need seasonal variation, too, so that you are drawing in people all year. In Titletown, you have the tubing hill and ice rink. In the summer, you have a weekly night market. Those public spaces can establish new traditions and leverage those connections that teams already have with their fans.
Increasingly, we see a more diverse mix of uses in these projects. I think most if not all of them will include residential projects going forward. Just look at the Chicago Cubs. They have done some work in Arizona at their spring training facility aimed at Chicagoans who are retiring there. That type of residential component is something we’ll see more of in these developments.
