ON THE RISE
Upscale hotel to open by July at former Mayfair offices
An obsolete office building at Wauwatosa’s Mayfair mall had a date with the wrecking ball — with two chain restaurants planned to replace it.
But that plan was killed by city officials. They instead offered financing help to convert the building into something that would create more activity and value.
The result is the first Wisconsin location for the high-end Marriott Renaissance hotel chain. It plans to open just before summer’s Democratic National Convention in downtown Milwaukee.
The 196-room Renaissance Milwaukee West Hotel, 2300 N. Mayfair Road, will feature 9,000 square feet of event space. That includes rooftop space created by adding another floor to what had been an 11-story office building.
The Renaissance’s developer, HKS Holdings LLC, also built a two-story addition connected to the main building. It includes a restaurant, Eldr+Rime, that will have its own entrance.
“We wanted it to have its own personality,” said Vik Khokhar, the hotel’s general manager.
Eldr+Rime’s menu will feature new American and Nordic cuisine, Khokhar told the Journal Sentinel during a recent walk-through at the future hotel and restaurant.
Its chef will be Gary Baca, a veteran Chicago-area chef whose resume includes Michael Jordan’s Restaurant, in suburban Oak Brook.
Eldr+Rime will have capacity for 250 diners, including private dining rooms and an outdoor patio, Khokhar said.
The restaurant will be on the street level of the two-story addition, with a 4,500-square-foot ballroom on the second level.
The ballroom, with a capacity for up to 350 people, has 16-foot-high ceilings with floor-to-ceiling windows.
Other event and meeting spaces include rooms on the hotel’s newly built 12th floor, with more floor-to-ceiling windows that offer panoramic views.
Along with other amenities, including a spacious lobby and a top-floor fitness center, along with well-appointed guest rooms, the Renaissance markets itself as a “lifestyle hotel,” Khokhar said.
It will mainly draw business travelers, he said, and will fill a demand for higher-end hotel rooms and amenities in the suburban market that includes Wauwatosa, Brookfield and Pewaukee.
But the hotel also expects to draw leisure travelers and events, including weddings.
“We really want to be a community hub for people to gather,” Khokhar said.
Renaissance is comparable to such brands as Marriott, Westin and W, he said.
Not coincidentally, those are all brands owned by Marriott International Inc.
They are part of a proliferation of hotel brand names controlled by a relatively small group of companies, said industry consultant Greg Hanis.
He said adding more brands drives increased revenue for Marriott and other companies. They typically franchise those brands to independent firms that own and operate the hotels.
Marriott and other companies say hotel brands all have their own defining characteristics.
Khokhar said the Renaissance brand values are independence, reflecting the hotel’s personality; intrigue, for the attraction of its products and services, and indigenous, for its focus on local roots.
Hanis isn’t so sure there’s much difference among brands, such as Renaissance, Westin and W, that are grouped together in a higher tier.
“All these brands are confusing,” said Hanis, president of Hospitality Marketers International Inc., which includes a New Berlin office.
“As a hotel consultant for nearly 40 years, today I can’t even keep them all straight,” Hanis said. “There may be slight differences, but it’s hard to tell the difference.”
Construction on the Renaissance, which is to open in early July, started in 2018.
That work is continuing despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
As with with other Milwaukee-area construction projects, workers at the hotel job site are taking precautions to prevent the illness from spreading, according to a statement from C.D.Smith Construction Inc., the project’s construction manager.
“In addition to intensified hygiene practices and social distancing, we are taking extra precaution as it relates to proactively monitoring the health of our employees and our contractor partner employees to keep jobs running smoothly,” the firm said.
Meanwhile, the Renaissance’s operators aren’t certain how the pandemic might affect an opening that is more than three months away.
“This is a new territory,” Khokhar said. “We will continue to follow the general guidelines established by the authorities and experts as we overcome this crisis.”
HKS Holdings is developing the hotel in a partnership with Raleigh, North
Carolina-based Concord Hospitality Enterprises Co., which will manage the Renaissance.
The $33.2 million project’s financing includes $13.8 million in city cash. Those funds are being provided by annual payments, over 18 years, through the hotel’s new property taxes.
The Wauwatosa Common Council in 2018 approved that financing plan after city officials rejected a proposal to demolish the vacant office building.
HKS Holdings approached Mayfair’s owner, Chicago-based GGP Inc., after the Plan Commission in 2017 delayed acting on a proposal to replace the office building with a pair of one-story chain restaurants: Uncle Julio’s, a Mexican eatery, and Seasons 52 Fresh Grill.
Commission members, including Mayor Kathy Ehley, said they were disappointed with GGP’s restaurants proposal because it didn’t provide a strong enough economic impact.
Ald. Joel Tilleson, a Plan Commission member, led efforts to delay action.
Tilleson also said then that the Common Council would likely consider financing a more ambitious development at the corner that would generate more property tax revenue, and business activity.
Three years later, Tilleson said he’s happy with the Renaissance. He said the hotel will provide economic benefits, such as helping Wauwatosa promote itself as a location for conferences and other events.
He also said the city’s financing for the project will earn strong returns.
“The tax revenue derived from preserving this high-rise tower is far more beneficial to Wauwatosa’s taxpayers than the low taxes that would have been generated by a single-story chain restaurant,” Tilleson said.
The Renaissance complements other nearby projects, including The Mayfair Collection retail, office and housing development, as well as new apartments, Khokhar said.
“It’ll be a nice addition to everything going on in the Wauwatosa market right now,” he said.