UPDATED: Estabrook Beer Garden Netted County $65k in First Year

Updated Wednesday 10:46 a.m. with clarifications from Milwaukee County Executive Office spokesperson Brendan Conway

Milwaukee County plans to start the bidding process next year to bring two more beer gardens to the parks system after a successful first summer in Estabrook Park netted it $65,000.

The County would have one beer garden built on the west or northwest side and another built on the south side, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Specific sites were not identified.

Under the Estabrook agreement with restaurateur Hans Weisgerber III, the county received 20 percent of beer sales and 10 percent of food sales.

Officials said contracts for the new beer gardens would be modeled around the Estabrook pact, according to the newspaper.

Revenue is estimated at about $800,000 a year, with the assumption that Estabrook continues its healthy sales and the new beer gardens did as well, according to Milwaukee County Executive Office spokesperson Brendan Conway. The estimate also includes money from unrelated land sales and matches from private donors.

Conway said that money would create a fund to address some maintenance at parks around the County.

However, Milwaukee County Chris Abele said that number might be a little high, the newspaper reports.

Conway added, "... this plan creates a number of unrealistic assumptions that will put taxpayers on the hook, potentially for hundreds of thousands of dollars."

The Estabrook Park beer garden, anchored by the Milwaukee River, opened in June. It was recently listed among the top 10 in the world.