Historic Commission Will Review New Downtown Hotel

Plans to construct an eight-story hotel Downtown atop what is currently a surface parking lot are moving forward.

The Tempo by Hilton Milwaukee hotel would contain 161 guest rooms, a rooftop bar and a restaurant, a first-floor restaurant and 4,600 square feet of meeting space at the corner of N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and W. Kilbourn Ave.

The Tempo brand is the newest Hilton hotel flag. It is billed as an “elevated lifestyle brand” with approachable, upscale amenities that help guests relax and recharge. Hilton announced in June 2021 that it had signed a development agreement and intended to open the Milwaukee hotel in 2024.

Developer HKS Holdings and architecture firm Kahler Slater filed for design approval from the Historic Preservation Commission on Dec. 14. The commission has oversight of the proposed building, 308 W. Kilbourn Ave., because it is being built on the historically-protected, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel property.

The filing says the new building is designed to respond to the former newspaper complex. To the north of the proposed hotel is a 1962 addition to the Journal Communications Building, which was built in 1924 at 333 W. State St.

“The proposed materials for the new building consist of brick masonry that is complimentary in color to the Kasota Stone panels of the historic structures, accented with a dark stone base that references the granite base of the adjacent 1960s addition. Architectural metal panel accents at the punched openings and roof form are consistent with the contemporary language of the addition facade along MLK Jr. Drive, and are intended to create a similar rhythm to the adjacent facade,” says the filing.

The hotel would be six feet shorter than the six-story Journal Communications building, now known as Journal Commons.

The second floor of the building would be used for indoor parking. The third through sixth floors would contain standard rooms with larger suites on the seventh floor. The eighth floor is a partial floor with an outdoor rooftop bar and meeting rooms.

The commission is next scheduled to meet on Jan. 9.

Developer Joshua Jeffers, who acquired the entire block in 2019 and has led a building-by-building redevelopment, confirmed that the hotel plan was still progressing on Nov. 15 during the Journal Commons ribbon-cutting event.

Journal Commons fills the 1924 building with 141 market-rate apartments. Westown Green, a 195-bed student housing development fills the 1962 building and is operated in partnership with Milwaukee Area Technical College. The Sentinel Building, 918 N. Vel R. Phillips Ave., is now home to Tenor High School.

Despite the fact that the 0.71-acre property hasn’t had a building on it in 70 years, the site isn’t without its share of history.

The Republican House hotel stood on the site from 1884 to 1961. It was there in 1900 that baseball’s American League was created as a competitor to what was then the standalone National League. The two entities merged in 1903 to create Major League Baseball. A historical marker at the site tells the story.

The application does not indicate any reference is being made to the former hotel in the new building, but the prior hotel is included for reference in the application submittal.

Immediately west of the hotel, Major Goolsby’s continues to operate in a one-story building, 340 W. Kilbourn Ave., that Jeffers sold for $892,000 in December 2021 to Goolsby’s-affiliated Skunk Hollow Land and Cattle Company LLC.

Hotel Financing

HKS is partnering with FirstPathway Partners on the project. Public documents from early 2021 revealed that the partners were pursuing $21.6 million in EB-5 financing for the $48 million project. The EB-5 program, as of new 2019 regulations, allows foreign nationals to obtain a green card in exchange for a $900,000 investment that creates 10 permanent jobs in a “targeted employment area” where the census tract or those directly adjacent have an unemployment rate in excess of 150% of the national average.  The investment description estimates the creation of 513 total jobs, including 188 directly involved in the hotel and restaurants. Other jobs would be created indirectly by the hotel’s construction and operation.

Census tracts used to create the targeted employment area include the one encompassing the property in Westown as well as one consisting of most of the Menomonee Valley and another encompassing the King Park neighborhood just west of The Brewery District and Interstate 43. The unemployment rate in the latter two tracts is more than 12%.

FirstPathway is led by Robert Kraft, and HKS, who have collaborated on a number of projects using EB-5 financing, including the nearby Aloft Hotel (1230 N. Old World Third St.), Kimpton Journeyman Hotel in the Historic Third Ward and the Global Water Center in Walker’s Point.

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