Feb. 26, 2013--Downtown Milwaukee's Inn Towne Hotel has started a remodeling project that will add a new fitness center, meeting room and lobby breakfast area.

The 103-room hotel at the northeast corner of W. Wisconsin Ave. and N. Old World Third St., formerly a Best Western, will become a Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott once the work is completed. The Fairfield's grand reopening will be in May.

The project will expand the hotel into first-floor space where Powers Jewelry operated for several years until its move last year to 301 E. Wisconsin Ave., according to a city building permit.

The hotel also will expand into the adjacent building, at 234 W. Wisconsin Ave., which last housed Johnnie Walkers clothing before that store closed, said Danica Potier, the hotel's director of sales

Other work includes making the hotel's rooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and relocating the main entrance.

The financially troubled hotel was purchased in June by a MHF Milwaukee II LLC, an affiliate of Magna Hospitality Group LLC, Warwick, R.I.

The brand name change will give the Marriott franchise four hotels in downtown Milwaukee, including midpriced Courtyard by Marriott, 300 W. Michigan St.; extended stay hotel Residence Inn by Marriott, 648 N. Plankinton Ave., and the full-service Marriott, under construction near the southwest corner of E. Wisconsin Ave. and N. Milwaukee St.

Fairfield is Marriott's lower-priced format.

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