Mandel Group is planning a $36 million mixed-use development at the Milwaukee County Research Park in Wauwatosa that will include a brewpub, hotel and up to 90 apartments.
The Milwaukee-based developer has stepped up to the project after the Milwaukee County Research Park Board terminated its agreement with Pewaukee-based VJS Development Group two weeks ago. Mandel will develop three parcels at the southeast corner of Innovation Drive and Watertown Plank Road.
Phillip Aiello, senior vice president of development for Mandel Group, presented the new proposal for the property to the board Tuesday, which includes a four-story, 80- to 90-unit apartment building on the south end of the property.
The apartments will range from studio to two-bedrooms and will include 112 underground parking spaces.
North of the apartments, Mandel is planning a brewpub/café, which would be built in the existing 102-year-old, 8,190-square-foot building, known as the M-10 building.
North of that site, will be a four- to five-story, 90- to 110-room hotel. The size will depend on the hotel operator, Aiello said.
The hotel and brewpub will share 170 parking spaces.
“We’re just beginning to talk to hotel and brewpub operators and starting to understand the level of interest,” Aiello said. “By the end of the summer we will know if a hotel operator is interested.”
VJS was planning a mixed-use development that included a 130-room hotel and a brewpub in the M-10 building. The company also planned up to 11,000 square feet of retail development in a newly-constructed building.
But VJS was unable to secure parking from Milwaukee County or interest from national hotel partners and dropped its option on the land.
Mandel Group recently completed a project in Wauwatosa, the Echelon at Innovation Campus Apartments, which is 80 percent leased, Aiello said.
Guy Mascari, executive director of Milwaukee County Research Park, said that project was one of the reasons he contacted Mandel after the VJS contract ended.
