Construction has begun on a $4.8 million project to transform the former Jackson Center nursing home building at 1840 N. Sixth St. in Milwaukee into a 79-room Days Inn & Suites hotel, an investor for the project said. The nursing home closed in 2002.
Two investors, Karl Rajani and Pat Kasthurirangaian, are renovating the 40-year-old, three-story, 30,018-square-foot building. The project will include the addition of a fourth floor to the building and a tower at the main entrance, Kasthurirangaian said. Milwaukee-based Arquitectura Inc. is the architect of record on the project. The Wisconsin Business Development Finance Corp. recently approved a $1.4 million loan, backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, for the project.
The hotel is expected to open in the summer of 2009, Kasthurirangaian said. The Days Inn & Suites hotel will fill a need for lower priced hotel rooms in the downtown Milwaukee area, Kathurirangaian said. Most of the rooms in the hotel will be available for $75 to $100 a night, he said. "There are only a couple of mid-priced hotels in downtown Milwaukee," he said. "Most of the proposed and existing hotels downtown are priced $150 to $200 and up a night. There is a huge market for the $75 to $100 a night range."
