New Plan To Save Historic Mansion on 27th Street
Cafe India owner drops plans, only for new developer to enter picture.
Photo taken Nov. 25, 2018 by Jeramey Jannene. All Rights Reserved. — Wildenberg Hotel
Cafe India owner Rakesh Rehan‘s plan to save the historic Wildenberg Hotel, 3774 S. 27th St., is dead. But a new developer has given the vision life.
“While waiting to close on the property, the opportunity arose for [Rehan] to get an immediate banquet hall, actually two banquet halls and a catering kitchen,” said project architect Tom Stachowiak of Stack Design Group to the Historic Preservation Commission on Aug. 4. “He purchased the Crowne Plaza Hotel on 13th Street.”
Rehan’s acquisition left the project without a developer, but Stachowiak found a new partner.
“Fortunately we had a different client with an interest in this property that we had already worked with in the past. And he’s very excited about it and he jumped right in,” said the architect.
Mandeep Dhawan, who owns several gas stations and commercial properties in Milwaukee, will serve as the developer. The project includes a restoration of the mansion, large rear addition and, elsewhere on the property, a commercial building for two tenants.
Dhawan slightly modified Rehan’s plans, including cutting the size of the planned banquet hall in half in favor of a sports bar. The proposed commercial building is also smaller at 2,800 square feet. “It’s about a third of the size as it was with the last developer, but same design,” said HPC senior planner Tim Askin.
A family member of Dhawan’s would run the bar and restaurant in the former mansion. It would function as a sports bar, with a sand volleyball court planned next to the addition.
The 2,800-square-foot house was built as a country estate in 1856 for speculator and distiller Jacob Nunnemacher. It once anchored a 1,000-acre farm, but now sits in the middle of a commercial corridor. The structure has been used as a bar, hotel and anchor building for a trailer park, but has been vacant for several years.
Dhawan would add approximately 14,000 square feet of space to the rear of the building.
Unpictured in the rendering is an expansion of Rehan’s plans. A second floor would be added to the rear expansion, connecting with the second floor of the historic home. The second floor addition would only be the width of the house, while the first floor would be much wider.
“This is a really good restoration project. They are doing more than we would ever require anyone to do,” said Askin of the full window restoration, material selection and other design features. The rear addition is designed to match the style of the Italianate, Cream City brick home.
Stachowiak said the second floor expansion is necessary to make the space legally occupiable. It currently has only a single staircase to access it. The expanded addition would include a second staircase, bathrooms and meeting rooms. “Otherwise it would just be unusable space,” said the architect.
The City Plan Commission is scheduled to review the project, including the new buildings, on Aug. 18. The site is included in a development incentive zone, which eliminates the need for Common Council review. But the Common Council will need to approve the land sale. Rehan won a request for proposals in 2022 to acquire the site.
The Historic Preservation Commission would normally have design oversight of any new building constructed on the property, but the specifics of the designation preclude review.
“The alderman at the time kind of gerrymandered the designation,” said Askin of Terry Witkowski. But the designation has helped push off any demolition pressure. As far back as 2018, the city has been publicly working with developers to repurpose the structure.
The historic commission unanimously endorsed the revised plans.
Nunnemacher is the most interesting past owner of the property, but it’s not his name that graces it today.
The property, located along what was the city’s primary southern entry point before the interstate system was constructed, was once dotted with cabins for rent. Edward Wildenberg acquired the site in 1954 and replaced the cabins on the property with trailers, but maintained the house as The Evergreen with hotel rooms and a bar. The family lost the property via tax foreclosure in 2013 and the operation was shuttered by the city in 2014.
Many decades before Wildenberg entered the picture, Nunnemacher ran the Kinnickinnic Distilling Company from the property, but ended up as one of many distillers whose property was seized in the nationwide Whiskey Ring taxation scandal. He spent several weeks in jail before being pardoned by President Ulysses S. Grant.
Dhawan has another project that could return to the preservation commission. He acquired an unusual, fire-damaged home in 2023 and requested to demolish it in 2024. But the house, 1942 S. Muskego Ave., is historically protected and a past owner appears to have violated an owner occupancy requirement which could allow the city to reclaim ownership.
Askin told Urban Milwaukee Wednesday that he has seen plans for two duplexes to be constructed on the property, but that clawing back ownership isn’t off the table.
Rehan acquired the Crowne Plaza Milwaukee South, at 6425 S. 13th St., for $8.1 million on April 1.
Renderings and Site Plan
Photos
Rehan Plan
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I remember stopping in to The Evergreen and had a beer. It was the most amazing group of characters assembled. Felt like every extra from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The Wild Ones, and Born on the 4th of July, and the set of Psycho (with a little National Liqour Mart tossed in for realism). Damn. They don’t make them like that anymore.