Friday Photos
Westin Hotel Rising
It will add 220 high-end hotel rooms to complex anchored by state's tallest building.
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It will add 220 high-end hotel rooms to complex anchored by state's tallest building. Back to the full article.
Photos - Page 2
So, is there gonna be an awkward gap between the USB and the hotel? Or are they gonna connect em somehow?
Overall disappointing project for the location :/
It’s hard not to be disappointed by the design and scale of this building. I’m hoping the three-floor punchout looks better than in the rendering, because nothing about it reads urban or sophisticated. The building in general seems appropriate for Madison or Schaumburg, Ill., not the heart of downtown. And while similar cities (Cleveland, Indianapolis, etc.) build 30-story hotels in their centers, Milwaukee developers once again think small.
Cities don’t build hotels; developers do. I find it hard to believe they would pass up the opportunity to make 3x the money on a larger building if there were money to be made in doing so.
@Jeff – the size and scale of hotel development is not about prestige, it’s about forecasted demand. Given that downtown Milwaukee still only has around 60-70% hotel occupancy, it’s not a surprise that the Westin limited itself to 220 rooms on nine floors, especially since they have a decent size footprint to work with.
Cleveland, Indianapolis, etc. compete on an entirely different scale for events than does Milwaukee. One could make the chicken-vs.-egg argument of whether the demand must come before the supply, but I don’t think anyone envisions Milwaukee competing for a national political convention (Cleveland) or a Super Bowl (Indianapolis) anytime soon. When a hotel can charge mega-rates (upwards of $400 nightly) for such events, it can afford to build extra capacity that might go largely unused at other times.