Demolition Permit Filed For Brady Street Hotel
Former shopping center to be leveled. But no definitive date for a construction start.
Brady Street Hotel proposal. Rendering by Kahler Slater.
A hotel proposed for Brady Street is inching closer to a groundbreaking.
A demolition permit has been filed for the two-story retail building on the site, 1709-1723 N. Farwell Ave. According to Department of Neighborhood Services records, it is anticipated to be issued to contractor HM Brandt on Sept. 18.
The 130-room, 11-story hotel that is slated to replace it would be flagged as a Hilton Tapestry hotel, according to an April press release from the International Luxury Hotel Association and BLVD Hospitality’s website, which lists the hotel as a “lifestyle hotel” in development.
Klein Development, led by Michael Klein, and Jeno Cataldo, a frequent Klein collaborator and Brady Street business owner, secured zoning approval for the development in April 2023.
Klein, via text message, told Urban Milwaukee there is not yet a definitive date to start construction on the hotel.
The glassy, triangular hotel would be developed on an 18,179-square-foot lot at the intersection of E. Brady Street, N. Cambridge Avenue and N. Farwell Avenue. It would be the only hotel located between Downtown to the south and suburban Glendale to the north.
Parking for the hotel would be constructed across the street on a currently-vacant lot at 1744-1750 N. Farwell Ave. The zoning change requires the development team to provide 59 off-site spaces and 11 short-term, on-site spaces.
In April 2023, a representative of the project team said four options under consideration include an apartment complex atop a parking deck, a large first-floor commercial space hiding a parking structure above, a two-story parking structure and a temporary surface lot for 90 cars on the 22,600-square-foot lot.
The parking property was previously acquired by senior living provider Saint John’s on the Lake, whose campus is a block east. The organization demolished a three-story office building that filled part of the site.
No building permits have been filed for the hotel, nor the parking development. Kahler Slater is leading the hotel’s design.
But a project investor seems to have publicly entered the picture. In October, a limited liability company (LLC) affiliated with Mark Sellers‘ Alligator Holdings purchased the hotel site for $2 million from a Klein/Cataldo LLC and the parking site for $2.9 million from Saint John’s.
Sellers sold his plastic molding company, MGS Mfg. Group, in 2016 and launched the holding company the following year. Last year, he sold the Germantown property leased to MGS for $32.7 million. Sellers did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
The 12,000-square-foot building slated to be demolished was constructed in 1987. It was long known for the Kinko’s/FedEx Office store on its first floor. The last remaining tenant, Mega Media Xchange, closed in 2023.
A three-story, triangular building previously occupied the site. Frank Crivello demolished the structure in the 1980s as part of a shopping center development that also included developing the strip mall, 1414-1438 E. Brady St., now anchored by Walgreens.
Klein’s brother Joe Klein, through HKS Holdings, is working with Kahler Slater on a Tempo by Hilton hotel in Westown. That hotel is now to be a floor shorter, according to a recent filing with the Historic Preservation Commission.
The Klein family is also pursuing an office-to-residential conversion of the 35-story 100 East office tower, but their prospective financing plan of using state and federal historic preservation tax credits was recently dealt a setback when the Historic Preservation Review Board denied recognizing the building as historic.
Renderings
Site Photos
Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
What’s the plan for MCTS stops on boths sides of the demolition site (30 SB and Green NB)? These are very busy with limited alternatives during demo and (hopefully soon) construction.
why do we think brady street needs an eleven story hotel???? it doesn’t fit. i don’t like the idea never have. and 45 years has a very important question that needs to be answered.
Tornado75: Why do we think Brady St. needs… anything? Well right now, there’s a vacant building there, and turning it into a hotel means increased property tax revenue, and 11 stories of visitors to the city exposed to the restaurants, bars, and recreational activities (Lake, Oakleaf Trail, Milwaukee River and it’s trails) within easy walking. It will instill new life into the city during all seasons, and increase foot traffic onto the street 365 days of the year, not just during the summer! Perhaps it will also encourage area day businesses and organizations to relocate here, to balance all the night time activities. On the negative side, increased density of people increases likelihood of crime and drug use/sales, but this is not unique to the East Side or Milwaukee.
ah such an optimistic dreamer. of course we need another thousand people on the streets during festivals. the more the merrier.
Hopes for all the assumed benefits to Brady Street & Neighborhood will die when it’s East end becomes a 5-way chokepoint for traffic and parking.
feels like the artist rendering significantly downplays the noise & chaos of the intersection.
aren’t there currently 3 or 4 bus shelters where the glass atrium / front entrance will be located?
Housing would have been a better idea.
I’m sure all the businesses along this corridor would appreciate the extra “thousand people on the streets”.
The current properly is a waste of space, hideous, inefficient use of space and I look forward to it being leveled. I think this would be a lot better as an apartment or condo tower than hotel but either way it would be a great increase in tax base for the city, and if the hotel thing didn’t work out it could be easily converted into condo/apartments as well later.
This area needs density and more housing. The NIMBYs will NOT be happy with this but they’ll never be happy, they just want something that’s impossible for this area. Move to Shorewood if it’s that much of a problem. (OOOOH they are not going to like hearing that!!)
Brady St is where the action is, that’s where the density should be built.