Downtown Hotel Changes Hands in Sheriff’s Sale

A downtown hotel has changed hands in an unusual way: a sheriff’s auction.

Atlanta-based Peachtree Group acquired the 103-room Fairfield Inn & Suites in a transaction valued at $9 million in state real estate transfer records. That value includes $500,000 for fixtures inside the 12-story hotel, 710 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

The downtown hotel, rated a 2.5-star facility, is located at the intersection of W. Wisconsin Ave. and N. Martin Luther King Jr. (formerly N. Old World Third St.).

Prior owner Arbor Lodging Partners paid $10.9 million for the property in 2016. An extended, pandemic-induced closure began in 2020. Mortgage lender Deutsche Bank filed a foreclosure suit in October 2020. Tico Bevier served as the court-appointed receiver. While the Milwaukee case played out, Arbor acquired new hotels in other markets.

The auction took place Aug. 22nd and was recorded Sept. 6, according to court records. Josh Krsnak, co-owner of The Avenue, previously disclosed that he bid on the property before it went to auction.

A similar situation played out in 2019 for Peachtree’s other Milwaukee hotel, the Hampton Inn at 174-184 W. Wisconsin Ave. The company acquired the 138-room hotel in lieu of foreclosure as it was the lender behind a 2016 acquisition. That foreclosure-avoidance transfer was valued at $19 million in state real estate transfer records. It sold the hotel later that same year for $10.66 million to Virginia-based Crossways Capital.

Peachtree also purchased the Crowne Plaza (now Sonesta) Milwaukee West hotel in Wauwatosa in 2018 for $24.5 million.

The Fairfield was branded as the Best Western Inn Towne Hotel until being renovated in 2013 after an earlier operator ran into financial trouble. Fairfield is a Marriott brand.

Originally known as the Strauss Building, the structure was built in the Neogothic Revival style in 1924 by contractor Gustave E. Kahn. It was designed as an office building with commercial space on its lower levels and was owned by Joseph Zilber‘s Towne Realty (now Zilber Property Group) before being converted to a hotel.

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