Homewood Suites to open in downtown Milwaukee
Historic Button Block Building to house 94-room hotel after redevelopment
Downtown Milwaukee’s lineup of hotels continues to grow, this time with a combination of the old and the new.
The old is the historic Button Block Building, constructed in 1892. The new is the Homewood Suites brand, which is entering Milwaukee with a 94-room hotel in that redeveloped seven-story building.
The first two floors previously housed Joey Buona’s Restaurant, while the five upper floors had been vacant since a fire in the early 1990s.
The Homewood Suites will open Nov. 1 at 500 N. Water St. Another Homewood Suites, with 140 rooms, is scheduled to open at Wauwatosa’s Mayfair Collection development on Oct. 28.
Those two hotels will join a Homewood Suites in Madison as the chain’s only locations in Wisconsin.
Homewood Suites, which is part of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.’s group of brands, was launched more than 25 years ago. There are now more than 435 Homewood hotels in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Homewood is a higherend, extended-stay brand, said industry consultant Greg Hanis.
“They’re very nice,” said Hanis, who operates Hospitality Marketers International Inc.
Homewood features suites with a full kitchen so guests can prepare their own meals.
The typical business traveler might stay for a week or longer, said developer S.R. Mills. He operates Kenoshabased Bear Development, which is developing the downtown Milwaukee Homewood Suites.
That Homewood’s location is within walking distance of downtown’s largest office buildings for business travelers. It’s also close to the Historic Third Ward and other attractions for leisure
travelers.
The hotel’s amenities will include a free hot breakfast, lounge area, meeting room, business center, fitness center and hot tub, Mills said. Daily rates start at around $150.
The historic building’s features include the distinct dark red sandstone used to build its first two floors.
Other historic touches include exterior terra cotta trim and a corner turret on the roof.
The interior features include high ceilings, big windows and brick archways — all part of the building’s original manufacturing use when it opened 125 years ago. Bear even refinished the original hardwood floors.
“We put quite a bit of effort into the historic pieces,” Mills said.
The $17 million project’s financing includes state and federal historic preservation tax credits.
The building’s name is tied to Charles Pearson Button, the original owner.
Button, who operated Phoenix Knitting Works, developed the building as an investment property, said Carlen Hatala, the city’s historic preservation senior planner. One of its earliest tenants was Mayer Boot & Shoe Co., she said.
Bear’s 16-month redevelopment project included creating the main hotel entrance on the building’s north side. A parking lot there is being converted into a drivethrough for dropping off hotel guests.
The city is providing $1.96 million for street work and other public improvements. That includes a pedestrian walkway at the drive-through to connect N. Water St. to N. Broadway.
That cash, provided through a tax incremental financing district, will be repaid through the hotel’s property taxes by around 2026, according to the Department of City Development.
Bear Development bought the Romanesque Revival-style Button Block Building in 2014 and began renovating it in 2016.
The Homewood Suites will be the fourth downtown Milwaukee hotel to open since June 2016.
The 158-room Kimpton Journeyman Hotel, 310 E. Chicago St., and the 155-room SpringHill Suites, 744 N. 4th St., both opened that summer. The 220-room Westin Hotel opened this past June at 550 N. Van Buren St.
Meanwhile, two more downtown hotels are under construction: the 150room The Hyatt Place at The Brewery, 821 W. Winnebago St., and a 223room Drury Inn & Suites, 700 N. Water St.
Kimpton, SpringHill, Westin and Drury are all new brands for the Milwaukee area.
The recent increase in downtown hotel rooms has been outpacing demand, Hanis said.
Figures compiled by STR Inc. show that the downtown area’s combined occupancy rate is down 6.7% for the first six months of 2017, compared with the year-earlier period, he said.
The average daily rate is up 4.9%, but the revenue per available room is down 0.2%.
“Milwaukee hotels need time to breathe and absorb the new rooms,” Hanis said.
As a higher-end extended-stay chain, Homewood is comparable to Marriott International Inc.’s Residence Inn brand and InterContinental Hotels Group PLC’s Staybridge Suites chain, Hanis said.
Other than a Residence Inn at 648 N. Plankinton Ave., downtown Milwaukee has only one other extended-stay hotel: Brewhouse Inn & Suites, 1215 N. 10th St., Mills said. That gives Homewood more room to compete, he said.
But Mills also said there are concerns about the effects of the recent surge in downtown hotel rooms.
“We’ll see when all the (new) hotels are absorbed how it shakes out,” he said.