F Street Buys Dubbel Dutch Hotel

A boutique hotel in downtown Milwaukee is under new ownership.

Developer Scott Lurie‘s F Street Group purchased the Dubbel Dutch hotel, 817-819 N. Marshall St., from a partnership of developer Juli Kaufmann, general contractor Andy Braatz and architect Patrick Jones.

“The Dubbel Dutch presented us with the opportunity to enter our hometown market by acquiring a truly unique, beautifully remodeled hotel,” said Lurie in a statement. “We’re confident that we can help to bolster the hotel’s prominence throughout the city and to provide guests with a one-of-a-kind experience as they restart their travel plans and social engagements in the city.”

The original partners redeveloped the three-story, side-by-side mansions, built in 1898, into a 17-room hotel. The hotel opened in July 2020, a difficult period for the hospitality industry given the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When we started restoring the building, we couldn’t have imagined the world turning on its head the way it did, but we were excited to bring our vision to the city when we first opened our doors in the summer of 2020,” said Kaufmann in a statement. “We’re proud to leave behind a beautiful building and two years of unprecedented heart and soul hard work by so many as our legacy in the Dubbel Dutch.”

The partners pursued the project starting in 2017 on behalf of an investor, then decided to go it alone in 2019 after the investor pulled out. It was intended to open, with a restaurant, for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. But neither the restaurant nor the convention materialized due to the pandemic.

A series of pop-up operations have operated from the first floor, including coffee shops and a bar. An art gallery was added last month.

F Street has extensive experience in the hospitality space, including as the current owner of the Pizza Man restaurants and through The Forty Two, a mixed-use office and entertainment venue in The Brewery District.

The sale was brokered by Nathan Glaisner of Verde Investments. A purchase price was not disclosed and the sale does not yet appear in the state’s real estate transfer database. The property was most recently assessed for $1.68 million.

For the full history of the house, see my colleague Michael Horne’s 2019 article “Koeffler House A ‘Grand Old East Side Home’.”

2020 Interior Photos

2020 Exterior Photos

Pre-Redevelopment