The plans to develop a 160-room Holiday Inn hotel in the Posner building at 152 W. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Milwaukee are dead. The project was proposed by Milwaukee-based Gabaldon Properties and North Liberty, Iowa-based Kinseth Hospitality Companies. Gabaldon has rescinded its offer to purchase the 100-year-old building, said Johnny Vassallo, the building’s owner and the owner of Mo’s Restaurants.
"We just decided, with what is going on in the economy and the credit markets, that the timing was not right to move forward with the project," said Charles Gabaldon, the owner of Gabaldon Properties. "I don’t want to get into any details."
"I just don’t think (Gabaldon) was able to get the deal together," Vassallo said. "I’m not really sure why, exactly. It’s hard to get financing right now. I think he tried really hard."
Vassallo said he still hopes to sell the seven-story, 108,000-square-foot building for about $5.8 million. The building has an assessed value of $2.9 million, according to city records. The building’s location at the northwest corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Plankinton Avenue places it right at the heart of downtown, Vassallo said. "It’s right at ground zero for everything that is happening in Milwaukee," he said.
Vassallo said he is in negotiations with three potential buyers: a local developer interested in creating live-work apartments in the building; a Chicago hotel developer; and an Indianapolis hotel developer. He also will consider offers from other potential buyers. As part of any deal, Vassallo’s Mo’s Irish Pub restaurant will remain in the building. If an attractive offer does not come together, Vassallo said he may rekindle his previous plans to develop a hotel in the building. "I always dreamed of doing a ‘Mo-Tel’ there," he said.
In recent months, Vassallo has scaled back his restaurant holdings to focus on his two most successful concepts: Mo’s A Place for Steaks and Mo’s Irish Pub. On Friday he opened a new Mo’s Irish Pub at a lifestyle shopping center in Noblesville, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis. That restaurant is based on the highly successful suburban model established at the Wauwatosa Mo’s Irish Pub, Vassallo said.
