Downtown Milwaukee hot spots see lull in business during RNC

MILWAUKEE (CBS58) – While many businesses are thriving this, some of the hottest spots in Downtown Milwaukee are not seeing the big boost they were promised during the week of the Republican National Convention.

Dan Jacobs is the Chef and Owner of DanDan and EsterEv in downtown.

“This is historically our busiest month of the year; this is one of the busiest weeks of our year”

However, during the week of the RNC, business has been slow.

“We are seeing a third to a quarter of our business that we would normally do during this week and that kills. Last week [we had] 209, tomorrow we have 51 reservations... that's not great," said Jacobs.

He says he does not know any business outside of the perimeter that is making money. He also told CBS58 that out-of-state businesses are catering RNC events, taking money from the Milwaukee economy.

“Why is a company coming from Chicago coming to Turner Hall when you have plenty of companies around here in Milwaukee that are more than capable and willing to do something like that,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs says this week is hurting more than just their business.

"It hurts the teams we employ which in turn hurts their families, which in turn hurts our economy because I have to cut half of our staff because we are not doing even half of the business we were doing a week ago,” Jacobs explained.

The Milwaukee Public Market is also a hot spot for visitors, but one vendor told us the crowd is not what he was expecting the week of the RNC.

“It’s been a little slower start to the week than normal, I think it will pick up, but in general it's great to have Milwaukee exposed to the rest of the country as just an awesome place to be,” said Phil Bilodeau, Owner of Thief Wine Ship and Bar in the Milwaukee Public Market.

One contributing factor is that some locals have either left or are not coming into the city this week.

"I think a lot of locals are maybe staying away out of concern for the security zone or traffic – but we are open for business," said Bilodeau.

The Milwaukee River, another hot spot around the city, is closed to commercial and recreational boating companies. Causing multiple boat rental companies to halt operations during their busiest time of the year.