Aug. 01, 2012--The foreclosed Wyndham Milwaukee Airport Hotel, 4747 S. Howell Ave., has been sold at a sheriff's auction to its lender.

U.S. Bank, acting as a trustee for the hotel's lender, Wachovia Bank Commercial Mortgage Trust, bid $5 million for the property at the Monday foreclosure sale, said David Gold, an attorney for the bank. Gold, of the Chicago office of Perkins Coie law firm, declined to comment Tuesday on the new owner's plans for the 510-room hotel.

The Wyndham's owner, California-based investors group Shady Grove Associates LLC, was hit with a foreclosure suit in 2010. The bank later obtained a $13.3 million judgment against Shady Grove, leading to the sheriff's auction.

Some airport-area boosters hope to see the Wyndham sold to investors who would demolish or extensively renovate the large, sprawling building, which has the most guest rooms of any Milwaukee-area hotel.

Sampson Investments built the hotel in 1960, later expanded it, and sold the property to Shady Grove in 1997 for $18 million. It was originally known as the Red Carpet Hotel, and later the Grand Milwaukee Hotel, before Shady Grove bought it.

That 1997 purchase price included the business and facility lease of what was then the adjacent 90,000-square-foot Grand Racquet and Fitness Club, 4801 S. 2nd St.

Shady Grove, a group led by San Francisco-based Fremont Properties Inc., remodeled the hotel and franchised it as a Four Points by Sheraton before switching to the Radisson brand.

___

(c)2012 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at www.jsonline.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services