Developers are proposing a 196-room hotel at the southwest corner of the Mayfair Mall campus in Wauwatosa, where an office tower is currently located.
HKS Holdings is planning to redevelop the 12-story, 120,000-square-foot office tower at northeast corner of North Mayfair Road and West North Avenue into a luxury hotel, according to plans submitted to the city of Wauwatosa.
The group was at the city’s Financial Affairs Committee meeting on Sept. 26, where they also requested $9 million in tax incremental financing for the project. The total cost of the project is not being disclosed at this time.
The project includes a rooftop deck and a “destination restaurant” on the ground floor.
Kyle Strigenz, co-owner of HKS Holdings, told the Financial Affairs Committee that HKS has been looking for the right site to develop a luxury hotel in Wauwatosa for several years.
The group is currently developing a 120-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel as part of the $36 million development Mandel Group has under construction at Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa.
“Doing that project, we’ve interviewed a lot of businesses in the area and they really want an elevated experience,” Strigenz told the committee. “Wauwatosa has a lot of Class A office development, a lot of retail but the luxury hotels have not followed. This is a one-of-a kind location.”
Chicago-based GGP Inc., (formerly known as General Growth Properties), which owns the office tower and Mayfair Mall, announced in 2015 that it would likely demolish the office building for retail development.
Strigenz told the committee he plans on keeping the skeleton of the tower to transform it into a hotel.
GGP representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
This spring, the company announced two first-to-market restaurants, Dallas-based Uncle Julio’s, which specializes in fajita’s and margaritas, and Orlando, Florida-based Seasons 52, were planned for the site.
It is unclear if those restaurants are still planned.
At the finance committee meeting, Mayfair Mall general manager Chris Jaeger said redeveloping the southwest corner of the Mayfair Mall property was one of his highest priorities.
“We have brought in a couple of hotel developers and we could not get through the economic barriers,” Jaeger. “Now we have a group who knows how to do business in Milwaukee and we are really excited about what this means to Mayfair in the future.”
