Koeffler Mansion Sold, Hotel Coming

The redevelopment of the Charles A. Koeffler, Jr. House into a boutique hotel took a key step forward this week when the building was sold to the three-member development team.

Marshall Street LLC, which includes developer Juli Kaufmann, general contractor Andy Braatz and architect Patrick Jones, purchased the building for $600,000 from real estate investment firm CJ Taxman Interests according to state records. The property is assessed for $719,900.

City records list the property, located at 817-819 N. Marshall St., as having 11,371 square feet of space spread over two-and-a-half floors. The house, built as a duplex in the English Renaissance Revival Style in 1898, was designed by the firm of Ferry & Clas.

The $2 million project is slated to open in May, in time for the July 2020 Democratic National Convention.

The firm, which is working through the national historic designation process to access historic preservation tax credits, will own and operate the hotel, known as the Koeffler Inn. The plans approved by the city in July called for 15 rooms, but Kaufmann told Urban Milwaukee that number could grow to 18 based on feedback from the National Park Service which administers the tax credits. A cocktail lounge is also planned.

First proposed in late 2017, Dale Stenbroten and his wife Katy Rowe had planned to convert the house, long used as an office building, into an 18-room hotel. Kaufmann and her partners, who were originally contracted by the couple on the deal, revived the proposal after financing fell through. Kaufmann called it an “incredibly challenging deal to get done.”

“I thought it was a great project the first time it came through here. It’s still a great project,” said commissioner and area Alderman Robert Bauman in July. The city’s Historic Preservation Commission staff characterized the project, according to the building’s exterior plans, as “99 percent” similar to 2017 proposal.

The partners, through their firms Fix Development, Ramsey Jones Architects and Braatz Building, are frequent collaborators. They recently completed the redevelopment of the building that houses Cream City Hostel.

Financing for the project includes a $950,000 private bank loan, a $750,000 loan from the city-affiliated Milwaukee Economic Development Corporation and $300,000 in owner equity. Kaufmann said the tax credits would be sold and used to increase the owner’s equity in the deal.

For more information on the house, see my colleague Michael Horne’s article “Koeffler House A ‘Grand Old East Side Home’.”

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