DeForest-based Main Street Builders Inc. plans to build an 81-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel in Sheboygan. The four-story, 16,300-square-foot building would be constructed on a vacant site on the east side of Taylor Drive, just north of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. The site is on the south side of Sheboygan, near the city’s south side industrial park and I-43.
"It’s a nice site," said Steve Sokolowski, manger of planning and zoning for the city. "It’s going to be very visible from I-43." There are about 1,500 Hampton Inn locations. The hotel chain is part of Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Hilton Hotels Corp.
More hotel developers are eyeing the Sheboygan area. St. Augusta, Minn.-based ETC Enterprises recently completed construction and opened a new 71-room GrandStay Residential Suites hotel at 708 Niagara Ave. in downtown Sheboygan.
However, the hotel project in Sheboygan Falls has stalled. A 68-room GuestHouse Inn & Suites, which was being built southwest of Highways 23 and 32, but the construction has been halted for months.
"It remains a footing and an elevator shaft," said Sheboygan Falls building inspector Ken Sonntag. "The investors in that project have kind of backed away. The original investor from (Milwaukee-based) Landscape Architects, Brian Kliesmet, is the owner of the project and he’s looking for new investors. It’s right now known to be defunct and not operating and no intent to open until they get some better construction costs inline and things. So right now, most of the citizens are asking what that elevator shaft is doing there untouched for the last six months. Basically, until they get some more money, better investors or a better way to construct it at a cheaper cost, I don’t think it’s going to be built."
Kliesmet did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Additional hotel rooms could help the Sheboygan area meet its requirement from the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) to add a significant amount of quality hotel rooms in order to host the 2020 Ryder Cup.
