New Hotel Rises on City’s Edge

Construction of Wisconsin’s first WoodSpring Suites hotel is moving quickly towards completion.

Kansas-based New Era Development Group is behind the 122-room, four-story project. The extended-stay hotel rents primarily by the week.

The hotel is being built on formerly publicly-owned land near Interstate 41, N. 124th St. and W. Bradley Rd. at Milwaukee’s northwestern edge. The property, currently addressed as 12355 W. Park Pl., is a 2.89-acre site leftover from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation‘s reconfiguration of nearby freeway ramps.

The nearest Milwaukee resident lives approximately a half-mile from the site. The property is located at the southeast corner of an intersection that has seen a substantial amount of change in recent years. A Sam’s Club warehouse club store opened at the intersection’s northeast corner, 8010-8100 N. 124th St., in 2016. The northwest corner, located in suburban Menomonee Falls, is home to an Aldi’s grocery store that opened in 2019 and behind it is a Woodman’s grocery store.

The WoodSpring brand is positioned as an economy extended-stay offering. Each of the more than 260 hotels across the country is owned and operated as a franchise.

The Milwaukee hotel will have 130 surface parking stalls, a lobby, guest laundry facility and on-site fitness center. A small refrigerator and kitchen area will be located in each room, designed to support the extended-stay guests. Rooms are rented by the day or the week.

“We cater to various mixes of clients,” said New Era president Christopher Stevens. During a December 2020 interview, he ticked off a list that included people on remote work assignments or trainings, construction workers, those displaced from fire-damaged homes and others that need a short-term residence while selling their home. “We fit that void very well.”

The Park Place business park is located southeast of the site. Hotel guests would access the hotel from W. Park Pl. along the property’s eastern frontage.

In September 2020 we first reported that WisDOT had a pending sale for the surplus property, most recently listed for $399,900. It was sold to New Era for $340,000 in June.

BRR Architecture is leading the hotel’s design. New Era affiliate WS Construction is serving as the general contractor on the project.

A different developer spent almost three years trying to open a WoodSpring hotel near Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. The Common Council ultimately rejected an operating license for the hotel because of neighborhood objections and concerns that it would not be staffed at all times. The city approved a zoning change for the project in early 2021.

“Folks are actually like waiting for this,” said then-alderwoman Chantia Lewis in March 2021. “I am excited about this project.” She praised the development team for addressing concerns and alerting residents with a mailer.

Choice Hotels acquired the WoodSpring Suites chain, formerly known as Value Place, after the airport dispute began. Choice, through franchisees, has a number of other hotels in Milwaukee, including a newly-constructed Cambria Hotel in Downtown.

Photos

Renderings

Pre-Construction Photos