An affiliate of Milwaukee-based Jackson Street Holdings has sold the Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha for $14.5 million to a Bloomington, Minnesota-based firm that specializes in reviving underperforming businesses, according to state records.
An affiliate of Bloomington, Minn.-based Burwell Enterprises purchased the Country Springs complex, which includes a 187-room hotel, a 45,000-square-foot indoor water park and more than 40,000 square feet of meeting space, located at 2810 Golf Road.
Other properties owned by Burwell include the Madison Concourse Hotel.
Burwell Enterprises is working with Chicago-based hotel design firm, The Getty’s Group, on a complete renovation of guest rooms, meeting space, food and beverage outlets, exterior and grounds of the Country Springs Hotel.
“The hotel does well on weekends with the waterpark and wedding business, but there has not been a lot of capital put into it over the last 10 years,” said Stephen Zanoni, chief operating officer of the hospitality division of Burwell Enterprises. “We think this is a great opportunity to give it a shot of capital, make it more contemporary and build that weekday business.”
For now, the water park will remain. The Country Springs name will likely be changed, Zanoni said.
During the 18 month renovation, the hotel will remain open.
Jackson Street Holdings, formerly known as Wave Development, revitalized the Country Inn Hotel and rebranded it as the Country Springs Hotel in 2003.
Jackson Street owner Mark Flaherty would not comment on the sale.
The Jackson Street partners also partnered with Denver-based Sage Hospitality and others at the height of the real estate boom in 2006 to develop 11 CoCo Key water parks. Five years later, the parks were in trouble, selling for well below their estimated $350 million to $450 million construction cost at an auction. One $67 million Massachusetts CoCo Key property sold for $10 million at a 2011 auction, according to a report by Arizona-based JLC Hospitality Consulting.
Jackson Street is currently one of two companies vying to redevelop a 2-acre city of Milwaukee-owned parcel at 4th Street and Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee. The group’s plan, called Nexus, includes three hotels. Marcus Hotels & Resorts has also submitted a plan for the site.
