An Iowa-based hotel operator is planning to redevelop the Goerkes Park Business Center office building in the Town of Brookfield into an 82-room Tru by Hilton hotel.
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Office building being eyed for hotel conversion[/caption]
The 24,000-square-foot, three-story office building at 20925 Watertown Road, near I-94 between Brookfield and Waukesha, would be redeveloped by
Kinseth Hospitality Co. of North Liberty, Iowa.
Kinseth is the same company that built the Home2Suites by Hilton in 2015 at 650 Larry Court, adjacent to where the
Tru hotel would be located.
This would be Hilton's firs Tru hotel location in the Midwest, according to the company's website.
Representatives from Kinseth could not immediately be reached for comment.
This week, the town board met to set a date to rezone the property from office and professional district to general business to allow for the redevelopment.
It is at least the fourth new hotel planned for the Brookfield area.
Burlington, Iowa-based Hawkeye Hotels is planning to build a Holiday Inn Express & Suites and a Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott at The Corridor development along I-94 in Brookfield, which would add 132 and 137 rooms, respectively.
The City of Brookfield is also working on a conference center with an adjacent 175-room hotel development in the Brookfield Square parking lot.
Some have questioned the need for so many additional hotel rooms.
In a recent interview, Carol White, president of the Greater Brookfield Chamber of Commerce, said existing hotel operators in Brookfield are getting worried that there is not enough demand.
“I am a believer in the free market and encourage business, but we have had low occupancy across the board,” White said.
For the first six months of the year, hotel occupancy in the western suburbs was 59.9 percent, down 2.8 percent from the same period in 2016, according to Hendersonville, Tennessee-based hotel market data firm STR Inc.
Kinseth operates 65 hotels and 5 branded restaurants in 12 states.
The company owns 13 properties in Wisconsin, including a Homewood Suites by Hilton that is currently under construction at 500 N. Water St. in downtown Milwaukee, and a Home 2 Suites that is currently under construction at the Whitestone Station development in Menomonee Falls.
