Downtown Hotel Won’t Close After All, New Hotel Planned
Portion of Hilton Milwaukee will be rebranded.
Hilton Milwaukee in March 2019. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Marcus Corp. has changed gears on its planned renovation of the Hilton Milwaukee, 509 W. Wisconsin Ave.
The Milwaukee-based company announced it December it would expend $40 million renovating the 25-story, historic Art Deco tower, but mothball the 175-room, 24-year-old west wing.
It was an unusual announcement, especially given the the $456 million Baird Center had just opened across the street. CEO Greg Marcus sits on the board of the Wisconsin Center District and voted for the expansion.
But the company is now changing its plans. Its going to reposition the west wing as an independently-flagged property, The Marc Hotel.
“Since announcing our extensive renovation plans for the Hilton Milwaukee, we have continued to evaluate the next plan for the west wing of the hotel,” said CEO Greg Marcus in a statement. “With The Marc Hotel we achieve two objectives: supporting the city and the ability for the Baird Center to attract larger conventions by maintaining the current levels of hotel room supply, and avoiding the additional investment of renovating the west wing guestrooms while facing the risk of more taxpayer subsidized rooms being added to this market, as has been proposed.”
The company has long opposed subsidies for competing hotels. And the potential that such a thing might come to pass has grown as the convention center expansion was completed and the city of Milwaukee completed Vel R. Phillips Plaza across the street, increasing the appeal of developing the remainder of the parking lot at 401-441 W. Wisconsin Ave. The city continues to market the property.
Marcus hinted that it could reverse course even further and expand the hotel, still the city’s largest even without the west wing.
“By keeping them as hotel rooms we preserve the ability to one day turn the property into a 1,000-room headquarters hotel should the future growth of the convention center and the strategic needs of the city dictate this course of action. Alternatively, should a new substantially subsidized competitor be added to the city’s inventory, this allows us to keep this part of the asset productive while we wait to transition it to a new use.”
Marcus has owned the hotel since 1972, initially rebranding what was long the Schroeder Hotel as the Marc Plaza Hotel and, in 1995, adding it to the Hilton family of brands.
It added the 12-story west wing in 2000. The lower level of the tower included the Paradise Landing water park, but the company shuttered the water park in 2013, leaving the space unused.
The Hilton Milwaukee makeover follows a $20 million renovation of the Pfister Hotel, completed earlier in 2024. Prior to that, the company overhauled its Intercontinental Hotel into Saint Kate The Arts Hotel.
The Hilton Milwaukee guest rooms will receive upgrades to express “an elegance that matches the grandeur of the hotel.” Each room will receive new furnishings, lighting, carpet, draperies and “vibrant artwork to pop against the neutral wall tones.”
For more on the renovation, see our December 2024 coverage.
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