June 16–Two mid-priced hotels, a Holiday Inn Express and a Fairfield Inn, are being proposed for The Corridor mixed-use development in Brookfield.
The four-story, 132-room Holiday Inn Express and the four-story, 135-room Fairfield Inn would be the first hotels at The Corridor.
Irgens Partners LLC is developing The Corridor between W. Blue Mound Road and I-94, west of Calhoun Road. The project includes stores and restaurants, such as Dick's Sporting Goods and Portillo's, and plans for office buildings.
JR Hospitality Group LLC, based in Eagan, Minn., and Hawkeye Hotels LLC, based in Burlington, Iowa, want to begin construction of the hotels in September, according to information filed with Brookfield Department of Community Development.
Under that schedule, the hotels would likely open in the fall of 2018.
The hotel proposals need city approval. They are scheduled for review before the Plan Commission on July 10 and the Common Council on July 18.
They would be built in the middle of The Corridor, south of where ProHealth Care is developing a large clinic.
The hotel proposals were filed with the city several months after Middleton-based North Central Group dropped its plans to operate a Hilton Garden Inn at The Corridor.
The Plan Commission approved that four-story 138-room Hilton Garden Inn last October. That approval included a condition barring a building permit for the hotel until the city was assured that there is ample water, sewer and fire safety infrastructure at the site.
North Central and Irgens executives objected, saying there is already sewer and water service at the site. City officials said that condition was just general language to ensure the services are adequate.
North Central didn't publicly discuss its reasons for backing out of the project.
But a North Central affiliate, Brookfield Corridor Lodging Investors LLC, has a contract lawsuit pending in Waukesha County Circuit Court against Irgens Partners and its affiliate, Deer Creek Development Partners LLC, according to online court records.
Meanwhile, the city is studying the possible development of a conference center and hotel on the site of a recently closed Sears Auto Center and an adjacent parking lot. That development site is just south of Brookfield Square mall.
The proposed Holiday Inn Express and Fairfield Inn, conference center, "urban styled apartments, new forms of retail/entertainment and pedestrian trails adds to Brookfield's appeal to better compete with other areas of metro Milwaukee," said Dan Ertl, director of community development.
Neither Raj Patel, Hawkeye Hotels chief development officer, nor Jay Bhakta, a JR Hospitality principal, could be immediately reached Friday for more information.
Tom Daykin can be reached at [email protected]
