St. Augusta, Minn.-based ETC Enterprises is building a 71-room GrandStay Residential Suites hotel in downtown Sheboygan at 708 Niagra Ave. It will be the first location in southeastern Wisconsin for the extended stay hotel chain.
GrandStay has other locations in Ames, Iowa; Mankato, Minn.; St. Cloud, Minn.; Apple Valley, Minn.; Oxnard, Calif.; Rapid City, S.D.; Eau Claire, La Crosse and Madison. ETC plans to build GrandStay locations in Lancaster, Calif.; Iowa City, Iowa; Fairbault, Minn. and Minneapolis.
The Sheboygan GrandStay hotel is expected to open this summer.
Also, a 68-room GuestHouse Inn & Suites hotel is under construction at the southwest corner of Highway 23 and Highway 32 in Sheboygan Falls. The 48,000, three-story hotel is expected to open later this year.
Hendersonville, Tenn.-based GuestHouse International also has hotels in La Crosse, Appleton and Kaukauna and plans to add locations in Belgium (in Ozaukee County), Green Bay and Eagle River, in addition to the Sheboygan Falls location.
Sheboygan County ranks eighth of the state’s 72 counties in annual tourist spending.
“There’s always room for additional rooms here,” said Delores “Dee” Olsen, executive director of the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. “We’re continuing to see the uptick in our tourism.”
The GrandStay and GuestHouse hotels could provide a boost to Kohler Co.’s efforts to bring the Ryder Cup golf tournament to Whistling Straits in 2020. The PGA of America has granted the tournament to Whistling Straits, located along Lake Michigan just north of Sheboygan, on the condition that an additional 1,600 “quality hotel rooms” are built within a 40-mile radius of the golf course by the end of 2014, according to Kohler Co.
Another project that could help Kohler’s Ryder Cup efforts is a proposal by West Bend-based Design and Build Inc. and Kraig Sadownikow to build a four-story, 83-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel at I-43 and Highway 60 in Grafton, which is within the 40-mile radius.
Some other national hotel chains are looking at coming into Sheboygan County, Olsen said. She described the quality of the hotel chains considering the area as “middle of the road.”
“We’ve had a number of them looking,” she said. “We’ve probably had at least two or three inquires (from national hotel chains) in the course of the last year.”
Key Sheboygan county projects:
• St. Augusta, Minn.-based ETC Enterprises is building a 71-room GrandStay Residential Suites hotel in downtown Sheboygan at 708 Niagra Ave.
• A 68-room GuestHouse Inn & Suites hotel is under construction at the southwest corner of Highway 23 and Highway 32 in Sheboygan Falls. The 48,000, three-story hotel is expected to open later this year.
• Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Inc. is building a 185,000-square-foot Supercenter store southwest of I-43 and Highway 42 in the Town of Sheboygan.
• Eau Claire-based Menards Inc. is building a 230,000-square-foot store north of the Wal-Mart site and northwest of I-43 and Highway 42. The store will replace the existing Menards store at 4309 County Highway J, which is just southeast of the I-43 and Highway 42 interchange. Menard Inc. plans to sell that store after the new store opens.
• Sartori Foods Corp. is building a 110,000-square-foot plant on 24 acres north of Highway PP and halfway between Highway 57 and Willow Road in Plymouth. The company’s future plans for the facility also includes a 130,000-square-foot second phase and a 100,000-square-foot third phase.
• Plymouth-based Masters Gallery Foods Inc., a leader in the private label, retail and food service cheese business, plans to build an $8 million addition to its Plymouth packaging and distribution plant.
• Plymouth-based Sargento Foods Inc. is expanding its Plymouth, Hilbert and Kiel facilities.
