Titletown District park a blank canvas for community programs

Richard Ryman | Green Bay Press Gazette

Show Caption Hide Caption Packers celebrating 100 seasons The Green Bay Packers will celebrate 100 seasons of football with events throughout the next 16 months. (April 9, 2018)

ASHWAUBENON – Saturday's preview of Titletown District's summer programming is the tip of the iceberg. For this summer and summers to come.

"We are going to treat every season as a learning experience every single year," said Jackie Krutz, Titletown programs manager. "The only way you can grow and give people what they want is to see how they use the park and really listen to what they say."

The Summer Fun Days Showcase on Saturday will include a chance to sample programs and activities that will be offered throughout the summer, including a zip line, face painting, Zumba classes, henna tattoos, Kubb (a lawn game), dance performances and art activities.

But that's not all that will happen this summer, Krutz said. "Every day there is something going on in the park."

Other activities will include a night market, yoga, storytime for kids, walking groups and Pound, a "cardio jam session inspired by the infectious, energizing and sweat-dripping fun of playing the drums," according to Pound's website.

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A night market will be featured on Thursdays. It will include some retailers, food and beverage sales and cultural performers, such as Irish dancers and Mariachi bands.

Later in the year, Titletown will host free movies. A large screen will face Ariens Hill so movie watchers can sit on the slope or on chairs in the plaza.

And it all will be topped off with happy hour on top of Ariens Hill.

A full schedule was published in Sunday's Press-Gazette. Information also is available at Titletown.org.

That, at least, is how the Packers envision Titletown activities this fall. In truth, Titletown District's park and plaza is an empty canvas.

"We are curious to see how the public makes it alive," Krutz said. "We have an idea, but the public has its own ideas. That's what we want."

In addition to programmed activities, Titletown District includes many freelance opportunities. It has art carts, reading carts, Imagination Playground building blocks, three playgrounds and a football field.

Dan Biederman of Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, a Packers consultant, said ever-evolving programming keeps public parks such as Titletown fresh.

"If you just keep the same programs and really don't innovate, I think you fall behind," Biederman said. "At Bryant Park (in New York City), which I've run for 38 years, we are constantly coming up with new programming ideas. You've go to keep doing new things."

The Titletown District is a 45-acre development west of Lambeau Field. Its tenants include Hinterland Brewery and Hotel Kohler, which flank the park and plaza, Titletown Tech, a partnership with Microsoft, which is under construction and also will front the plaza, and Bellin Health Titletown Sports Medicine & Orthopedics. Also planned are an apartment building, townhouses and other commercial buildings.

Ten acres of the development are devoted to the park and plaza, where the Packers offer free to low-cost activities for the community.

"In most larger markets, it's depressing to have a stadium only used for (games)." Biederman said. "Football stadiums tend to be more hostile at the perimeter. The Packers are getting away from that."

In addition to the New York park, Biederman has worked with baseball, basketball and football teams on similar projects, including the Atlanta Falcons' Home Depot Backyard. Biederman said the Falcons, like the Packers, are not wringing every dollar out of the development that they could in favor of providing something for the community.

"The Packers are ahead of other people because they created something from nothing," Biederman said. "We were very worried about how people would respond to it, but I've had a couple people with no stake in it at all giving the Packers all the credit."

Krutz said Biederman's group assisted in setting up fall programming, which laid the groundwork for summer plans.

"We learned a lot from that," she said. "Sometimes certain things take a little longer and some just do not work."

For example, an organization that had success with an early morning weekday exercise program wanted to try it at Titletown District, where it bombed. Turned out, participants wanted showers and changing facilities so they could go straight from the workout to work.

"We had it on a Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and it was packed," Krutz said. "One of the successes we had in the fall was Zumba at 6 p.m. during the week. We had so many people for that. We are bringing that back."

Biederman said Packers leadership has had a good understanding of public space development.

"This will evolve. I'm pretty convinced it will be much better in three years," he said.