Oak Creek could be home to the state’s third avid hotel, and just the second in the southeastern Wisconsin.
According to development plans filed this week with the city, the 95-room InterContinental Hotel Group-branded hotel would be constructed at 9315 S. 13th St., immediately south of the Steinhafels furniture store and near the northeast corner of the I-94 interchange with Ryan Road.
Once open for business, the four-story hotel would employ about 25 full-time workers. It would include a large lobby area that can be used to conduct business or socialize, a fitness room and modern guest rooms.
The city’s plan commission is scheduled to take up the proposal in December.
If eventually constructed, this avid hotel would join others being developed in Monona and Waukesha. According to IHG’s website, the Monona avid hotel will have rooms available starting Jan. 10. Construction of the Waukesha hotel commenced earlier this year, with site work beginning in September. The work is slated for a September 2020 completion, according to project contractor Nashotah-based MSI General Corp.
The development team consists of property owner John Schlueter, president and owner of Milwaukee-based Frontline Commercial Real Estate LLC; Bruce Kinseth, executive vice president of Liberty, Iowa-based hotel management firm Kinseth Hospitality Cos.; and Kraig Sadownikow, president of West Bend-based American Cos.
The hotel would be built and owned by a newly created LLC. Kinseth will operate the hotel once it is built under a franchise agreement with IHG. Kinseth will also be operating the Monona avid as well as another in Roseville, Minnesota.
In describing the desire to construct the new hotel, the developers point to all the development activity occurring nearby, including the 2.6 million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center being built about a quarter mile away at the Ryan Business Park.
“We expect the addition of Amazon and other companies … to transform the area into a destination for travelers looking for hotel accommodations, along I-94 and the southern suburbs of Milwaukee,” the development team states in a project summary.
The summary further states that, according to data received by Hendersonville, Tennessee-based STR Inc., the occupancy rates of existing competitive hotels in Oak Creek was 68.7% at a nightly rate of nearly $104 for 2018. These competitive hotels in the Oak Creek market are primarily older, the developers also noted.
IHG established its new avid brand and designed the hotels to reach business and leisure travelers that make up what IHG says is “an underserved $20 billion segment of the U.S. midscale hotel market,” according to the project summary. The rooms are typically priced $10 to $15 less than IHG’S Holiday Inn Express brand.
IHG introduced the avid brand in September 2017. At least three avid hotels are in operation across the country, and as many as 15 hotels could be open by the end of 2019.
