Demolition Underway For Brady Street Hotel

Demolition of Farwell Point building. Photo by Sophie Bolich.

Hammers are swinging on the east end of Brady Street.

A two-story commercial building is being demolished before the construction of an 11-story hotel on the triangular site.

The 130-room hotel 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.

HM Brandt is leading the demolition, which currently has the unusual appearance of a building being demolished from the bottom up instead of the top down. The first floor, long home to a FedEx Office (previously Kinko’s) store, has been gutted to the studs.

The building was constructed in 1987, part of a development that included the Walgreens-anchored shopping center to the west. A three-story, triangular building previously occupied the site,

The glassy, triangular hotel would be developed on an 18,179-square-foot lot at 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.

Kahler Slater is leading the hotel’s design.

Klein, in September, told Urban Milwaukee there was no definitive date for construction to start. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

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. An additional project investor appears to have publicly entered the picture. In October 2023, 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 in September when Urban Milwaukee reported on the demolition permit request.

Klein, with other members of his family and entrepreneur Johnny Vassallo, is also pursuing the redevelopment of the 35-story 100 East office building into 384 apartments. That project took a significant step forward in November when the building became eligible for historic preservation tax credits.

Photos

Renderings

Pre-Demolition Photos