Extended stay hotel proposed at Pabst brewery

Oregon, Wis.-based Gorman & Co. is planning an $18.8 million project to redevelop the Brew House building and the Mill House building located northwest of West Juneau Avenue and North 10th Street in the former Pabst brewery complex in downtown Milwaukee into a 90-room extended stay, beer-themed hotel.
Gorman has an option to purchase the buildings from The Brewery Project LLC, which was formed by Zilber Ltd. founder Joseph Zilber, who died earlier this year. The Brewery Project is transforming the former brewery complex into a mixed-use urban neighborhood.
Gorman has not determined a name for the hotel yet and does not plan to flag it with a national chain said Gary Gorman, chief executive officer of Gorman & Co.
The project will also have a restaurant and bar and a beer museum on 5,000 to 10,000 square feet of space on the first floor, with on outdoor dining area on the west side of the building, Gorman said.
The Brew House building still has the copper kettles that were used for brewing Pabst beer. The hotel will feature a four-story atrium with the kettles in the middle and a stained glass window in the back, Gorman said.
“It will be a dramatic presentation,” he said. “(The buildings) really have a lot of character. We’ll polish (the brew kettles) up so they look good.”
The project will be financed in part by $15 million in debt financing from Chinese investors through the federal government’s EB-5 program, which provides green cards and possible citizenship for foreigners that invest in project in the United States that create jobs. Gorman is in the process of obtaining approval for all of the Chinese investors, Gorman said.
Gorman hopes to begin construction of the project in February or March and complete it a year after that, he said.