Downtown Hotel Taken Over By Lender
Transfer in lieu of foreclosure answers question on why hotel mysteriously closed in late April.
174-184 W. Wisconsin Ave., Hampton Inn & Suites. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
The 138-room Hampton Inn and Suites, 176 W. Wisconsin Ave., is under new ownership.
The Wisconsin Department of Revenue‘s real estate transfer system says the property was conveyed to lender EB Group LLC, a subsidiary of Illinois-based Evergreen Bank Group, in lieu of foreclosure on July 28.
The hotel closed in April with a contradictory sign posted on its doors: “this hotel is permanently closed for renovations.” No permit requests were filed with the city.
Virginia-based Crossways Capital owned the property. Department of Revenue‘s delinquent taxpayer database lists Crossways’ legal entity, Wisconsin Ave Partners LLC, as owing $388,143.67 in unpaid withholding, sales and expo taxes.
The deed transfer notice values the hotel at $11.8 million. It is currently assessed for $10 million.
This isn’t the first time the property has gone through financial issues. It was transferred to a lender in lieu of foreclosure in 2019 with a listed value of $19 million in state real estate transfer records. Crossways purchased it later that year for $10.66 million.
The hotel was most recently managed by Kinseth Hospital Companies.
Clai Green operated a wedding venue, Sixth Floor, in leased space within the building and needed to rebook approximately 70 weddings when the hotel abruptly closed.
Two decades ago the property operated as a Howard Johnson Inn & Suites, but was sold in 2005 and remodeled and sold again in 2014 and 2016. The building’s facade has been substantially altered, but the structure dates back to 1917. It’s actually an amalgamation of three structures, the Bartlett Building, the Gross Building and the National Bank Building.
A hotel a block west also went through financial issues recently. Last August, Peachtree Group, which previously owned the Hampton Inn, purchased the Fairfield Inn & Suites at a sheriff’s sale.
The hotel market has shifted east in the past decade, with new, higher-end properties opening in East Town while the cluster of W. Wisconsin Ave. hotels awaits renovation or redevelopment.
A representative of Evergreen did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when the hotel may reopen.
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No reason these properties cannot be cleaned & updated to become successes with the new resurgence on the Avenue.
The big name hotel brands (e.g., Hilton, Marriott, IHG) have a lot of these rundown properties in their portfolios across the country that need to be forced to upgrade or shutdown.