When many people think of commercial real estate development in Waukesha County, they think of sprawling shopping centers along Bluemound Road and suburban-style office and industrial parks in Brookfield, New Berlin, Menomonee Falls, Waukesha and Pewaukee.
Dense, walk-able urban areas are not the hallmark of Waukesha County. However, downtown Waukesha has an impressive collection of historic buildings and a pedestrian-friendly urban layout not unlike Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.
The problem is many of the commercial spaces in downtown Waukesha are vacant as the area has struggled for years to compete with the newer suburban style shopping areas in the county.
However, one Waukesha resident hopes to lead a revitalization in downtown Waukesha by opening an upscale boutique hotel.
Located in a former flophouse at 314 W. Main St., The Clarke Hotel will open on Dec. 1. The proprietor for the 20-room boutique hotel, Andrew Ruggeri, is a Waukesha resident and previously owned The Delafield Hotel. Before that, he launched and managed Hotel Metro in downtown Milwaukee.
Ruggeri believes The Clarke Hotel will help spark a revitalization in downtown Waukesha.
“If you look back at what happened on Milwaukee Street (when Hotel Metro opened), it was pretty much vacancy after vacancy,” Ruggeri said. “Now it is THE street. It’s the club street of Milwaukee.”
Already restaurants are opening near The Clarke Hotel.
The owners of Taylor’s in downtown Milwaukee plan to open Taylor’s People’s Park, a bar and restaurant, in early December across the street from the hotel. Sakura Japan Sushi & Grill opened recently near the hotel.
“When I heard these guys bought the building (for The Clarke Hotel), it was like a shot of vitamins in our arm,” said James Taylor, a co-owner of Taylor’s with his brothers Don and Robert. “It was just perfect timing.”
The hotel also will have its own high-end restaurant, called The Black Trumpet, which will charge $16 to $35 for dinner and $8 to $15 for lunch. The menu will feature “neo-classical cuisine, classic French and world cuisine with a modern twist to it with an emphasis on local ingredients and local purveyors,” Ruggeri said. The restaurant will have seating for 50 people and will be located next to the hotel’s bar, The Clarke Bar.
The new restaurants will combine with the hotel to create synergy in downtown Waukesha for more development, Ruggeri said.
“If you get an anchor, which we are hoping to be, and then get some nice restaurants, then you get more foot traffic and then retail will follow,” he said.
Ruggeri and other investors bought the building in 2005. The structure actually is five combined buildings built between the 1840s and 1860s. It was in bad shape when Ruggeri and his partners acquired it.
“It was a disaster,” he said. “It was terrible. There were bad things going on in this building.”
Workers loaded up 15 dumpsters with garbage from the building, before they even began demolition. Yet despite the problems with the building, Ruggeri said he saw potential and city officials were eager to see it redeveloped.
“It was just a good opportunity. It looked like the right place,” he said. “The city was interested in participating with TIF (tax incremental financing). We sat down, came together and talked.”
The hotel will target business travelers during the week.
“Our focus is going to be on the business traveler,” Ruggeri said. “We’re literally 10 minutes from about 300 businesses that put people up in (hotel) rooms.”
During weekends, the hotel will attract people on “stay-cations” and people attending weddings, he said. The hotel will have a ballroom with seating for 120 and three smaller rooms (with a capacity of 40, 20 and 8) for small groups or private dining.
The rooms will be about 350 to 550 square feet in size, and room rates will start at $200 and will go up to about $450 for combining multiple rooms into a 12- person suite.
The restaurant, bar and ballroom will be located on the building’s first floor. The smaller meeting rooms and a wine room will be in the basement. The hotel lobby will be on the second floor and the hotel rooms will be on the second and third floors.
Ruggeri sold his interest in the Delafield Hotel to Delafield developer Robert Lang. Comparing The Clarke Hotel and The Black Trumpet to The Delafield Hotel and its restaurant, Andrew’s, Ruggeri said the Delafield property was more like a country inn. “This (in Waukesha) will be a much more urban feel,” he said.
The downtown Waukesha area also could get a boost by plans to bring a Northwoods League baseball team to Frame Park next summer. The park is located near the downtown area, and $1.2 million in renovations are planned to upgrade it for the league, which is made up to college players. The games could bring more people to patronize bars and restaurants in the downtown area.
Kenosha
Oconomowoc-based Brookstone Homes plans to develop a 110-lot single family home subdivision on the former Kenosha Auto Transport site north of 45th Street and east of 35th Avenue in Kenosha.
Waukesha-based MRED-Cummings plans to build a 15,000-square-foot Walgreens store at the southeast corner of 75th Street and Sheridan Road.
Milwaukee
Design Specialties Inc., a manufacturer of fireplace enclosures, plans to build a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on a five-acre site at 11100 Heather Ave. in the Granville Business Park. The company currently leases 19,000 square feet of space at 7664 N. 81st St.
Milwaukee nightlife entrepreneur Jake Dehne and Charlotte, N.C.-based nightclub operator Brad Beltrondo plan to open an upscale club and lounge called Suite in the former Have A Nice Day Café space at 1103 N. Old World Third St. in downtown Milwaukee.
West Bend
Waukesha-based MRED-Cummings plans to build a 14,820-square-foot Walgreens store at the southeast corner of West Paradise Drive and South Main Street. A few homes and small commercial buildings will be demolished on the site.
Koehn & Koehn Jewelers plans to build a 3,753-square-foot building at 2415 W. Washignton St. to replace its existing 1,980-square-foot store building on the property. The new building will be built behind the existing building and the existing building will be demolished after the new one is completed.
Brookfield
Briohn Design Group LLC plans to build a 6,500-square-foot medical office building at the northeast corner of Barker Road and Greenfield Avenue in the Town of Brookfield.
