Hotel to be built next to Cudahy ice complex
By Steve Jagler, of SBT
Negotiations have begun for plans to build a hotel to accommodate patrons of the Powerade Iceport complex being constructed in Cudahy.
City officials and planners met with potential developers April 30 to discuss the preferred options for the hotel, which will be built near the sports complex, south of Layton Avenue and east of Nicholson Avenue.
The hotel will probably have about 200 rooms and will be designed to accommodate families that travel to the sports complex, rather than business travelers, sources said.
Sports Sites LLC, a real estate company formed to develop the sports complex, closed on its $2.85 million purchase of the site from Cudahy’s Gateway Real Estate LLC on April 29.
The $22 million Powerade Iceport complex, which will be operated by Iceport LLC, a company formed by Sports Sites, is targeted for a June 2004 opening.
The financing is in place to build the project, said Scott Branovan, president and chief executive officer of Iceport LLC.
"Yes, it really is going to happen," Branovan said at a groundbreaking ceremony April 30.
The complex will feature a concourse overlooking five indoor ice rinks, including a 2,500-seat arena rink.
"This project is huge for a city of the scale of Cudahy," noted Brian Vandewalle, president and owner of Vandewalle & Associates, a Madison company hired by the city to oversee the revitalization of downtown Cudahy.
The Powerade Iceport complex will be part of the LakePort Village development that will include mixed uses of retail and commercial business within Cudahy’s Lakeside Commons downtown revitalization district.
Cudahy’s new public library opened at a site west of Packard Avenue in Lakeside Commons earlier this year.
Lakeside Commons is being developed through a tax incremental financing (TIF) district in downtown Cudahy.
The Powerade Iceport complex also is receiving the support of the Coca-Cola Co., which produces the namesake Powerade sports drink.
The complex, which will provide "affordable" facilities for ice hockey, roller hockey, figure skating and synchronized skating, is being built
on the site of the former George J. Meyer Co. plant.
"This is like a Phoenix project, rising out of the ashes," Vandewalle said.
The 200,000-square-foot complex will be constructed by HOK Design+Build, a Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm that designed the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
The complex also will be the home of Al’s Italian Beef and Nancy’s Pizzeria, two Chicago-based restaurants that will expand into the Wisconsin market.
"People said all of this wouldn’t happen, but it is going to happen," Cudahy Mayor Raymond Glowacki said. "I think the good Lord smiled on Cudahy a year ago and allowed all this to happen. He put all the right people in the right place at the right time."
May 16, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
