Hartland reviews downtown boutique hotel plans

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By JIM RICCIOLI

USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

Conceptually at least, a boutique hotel would seemingly fit nicely in the village of Hartland‘s old commercial district.

The question is, can all the details be worked out to make a four-story 17,000-square-foot building come together against a tide of financing, planning challenges and other details in the months ahead?

Village officials like its chances so far, after two preliminary reviews allowing the hotel plan to proceed.

“I like the concept,” Village President Jeff Pfannerstill said in an email interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I feel it is in line with what Hartland has been hoping for with development and redevelopment in our downtown, I think it’ll fit well in our downtown and will be much needed as we have no hotel.”

Early plan presents images of four-story building

Pfannerstill also likes the design of the building shown in more than a half-dozen renderings, featuring “the style of development we would like to see in downtown Hartland.”

As envisioned, the hotel would replace two old buildings at 101 and 107 E. Capitol Drive, on southeast corner lots where West Capitol Drive begins. A map and renderings shown in village documents display an irregularly shaped building that stretches from East Capitol Drive (north) to Haight Drive (south). A porch facing East Capitol and a rooftop conservatory facing Haight are among the featured highlights of the plan.

HF Hospitality Group and Luther Group presented the conceptual plan to the Village Board and Plan Commission in April, gaining support for the idea.

Hotel still needs formal development plan and further discussions

But Village Manager Ryan Bailey, in an email to the Journal Sentinel, acknowledged the discussion and public support is preliminary to a variety of issues and plans still in the works.

Among the questions is whether the developers would seek tax-increment financing – which uses new property tax dollars generated by a development to pay for certain upfront costs – to make the plan feasible, Bailey said. The operations and plan for inside the hotel aren’t clear as yet.

“This project was just introduced conceptually,” Bailey said. “So the exact room numbers and plans are not finalized yet. I believe we have heard in the 30 room range but that has not been put forward yet.”

But the village support of the conceptual prospect at least encourages the developers to take the next steps. Those include creating and submitting architectural drawings and beginning an approval process for a Planned Unit Development, an urban planning tool that gives a builder some design flexibility in an otherwise well-defined zone.

Bailey noted the Plan Commission and, later, the Village Board would have to approve the PUD, which the developers would have to abide by under contract.

Representatives to the development group did not return an email message this week to discuss some details of the plan.

Village as a whole would benefit from hotel, Pfannerstill says

It’s not just the downtown area along Capitol Drive that would gain something from a local hotel, the village’s president added.

“This project will also assist in our continued pursuit of economic development in the Village,” Pfannerstill said.

He doesn’t exactly have a wish list for a hotel, or for that matter, any particular developments in Hartland, he said. Instead, he welcomes any project that enhances what the village already has.

“My wish has only been that the staff and the board and myself can continue keeping Hartland a great place for business and a great place to call Home,” Pfannerstill said. “Developments like the hotel that is before us along with the businesses that are already in Hartland and all the residences that call Hartland home continue to add to the charm and vibrancy that Hartland offers.”

Hartland previously considered a four-floor mixed-use building with a hotel, by James Kupfer of Kupfer Investments LLC and Chris Miller of Miller Marriott Construction, on Cottonwood Avenue several blocks south of the new concept plan. The Onyx hotel was modified twice, to a three-floor and then two-floor design, but never approved. The plan was withdrawn in 2023.

While not directly related, the Hartland hotel concept, in scope and strategic placement, appears similar to the Cobblestone Hotel & Suites in Waukesha that is nearly complete.

Like the Hartland plan, the Waukesha hotel is along a major arterial road in the community’s oldest business district, tightly wedged into space that was created by the demolition of an old building (the former bank site most recently occupied by Associated Bank). Waukesha officials cheered the redevelopment as a boost to the downtown area.