After
unexpectedly closing its doors this spring, the
Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Milwaukee has been acquired by its lender.
The 138-room hotel at 176 W. Wisconsin Ave. was taken over by an affiliate of Oak Brook, Illinois-based
Evergreen Bank Group in a deed in lieu of foreclosure action. The property is valued at $11.8 million, according to state real estate records.
A deed in lieu of foreclosure is an arrangement in which one voluntarily turns over ownership of a property to the lender to avoid the foreclosure process.
The hotel was owned by Wisconsin Ave Partners LLC, an affiliate of Norfolk, Virginia-based Crossways Capital LLC, which bought the hotel in November 2019 for $10.7 million.
Crossways Capital LLC, Evergreen Bank Group and their respective agents did not respond to requests for comment.
Mortgage documents filed with Milwaukee County show that Evergreen Bank made a $12.5 million mortgage loan to Wisconsin Ave Partners LLC on Nov. 21, 2019. That was just days before the business
purchased the hotel from an affiliate of Atlanta-based Peachtree Hotel Group.
The building is currently assessed at $8,638,500, according to city property records.
Wisconsin Ave Partners owes $388,143.67 in delinquent taxes, according to the state Department of Revenue’s listing of delinquent taxpayers.
In May,
messages were posted to the hotel's front entrance and website saying the building was closed for renovations, but the hotel's owner and operator declined to comment on what those renovations would entail. Further, no permits have been filed with Milwaukee's Department of Neighborhood Services to do renovation work.
This is
the second time in recent years that the hotel has been acquired by its lender. In March 2019, the hotel's ownership was transferred to an affiliate Atlanta-based Peachtree Hotel Group from its previous owner, Connecticut-based New Castle Hotels & Resorts. New Castle turned over the hotel property to Peachtree in order to avoid foreclosure.
