Long-delayed Milwaukee boutique hotel plans show signs of life

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By TOM DAYKIN

USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

Long-delayed plans to develop a boutique hotel just north of downtown Milwaukee might be proceeding with financing that includes federal tax credits.

The 60-room TRYP Hotel by Wyndham would be developed at 419 W. Vliet St.

That $16 million project’s financing would include a $10 million New Market Tax Credit allocation, according to a plan from First-Ring Industrial Redevelopment Enterprise Inc.

The nonprofit group, known as FIRE, is to review the proposed tax credit allocation at its May 5 board meeting, according to the meeting agenda.

New Market Tax Credits help finance new commercial buildings in lower-income neighborhoods. Those tax credits are provided to various groups by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Milwaukee-based Scott Crawford Inc. would redevelop and expand a historic building as a hotel that includes 2,949 square feet of separate commercial space, according to a FIRE report.

The development plans call for a three-story addition on a vacant lot to the building’s east.

“The Project aims to serve as a neighborhood anchor by repurposing and expanding an existing historic structure,” the report said.

The tax allocation would “provide the necessary subsidy needed for the Project to move forward,” it said.

The hotel would have 28 full-time employees.

Wyndham says the TRYP brand is for hotels which “feature city-influenced design, social lobby spaces, and modern conveniences, along with savvy staff members who can help you tap into the city to uncover the coolest places.”

The Vliet Street building was purchased in 2024 by 419 Hotel LLC, led by Mohamad Khalek, according to a deed. Khalek owns Oak Creek-based Khalek Building Services LLC.

Plans were filed in 2025 with the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services to redevelop the three-story building into a hotel.

Those renovation plans were later postponed, according to department records.

Plans to convert the building into a hotel first surfaced in 2019. That proposal included adding a fourth floor to the building.

The hotel was to be operated by Karl Rajani and Patrick Prabhu. Their group later sold the property to Khalek’s group.

The Vliet Street building was constructed in 1888, in the Second Empire architectural style, as the William P. Froehlich Paper Warehouse, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

The FIRE board also will review a proposed $15 million tax credits allocation to help finance the $54 million AC Hotel.

Middleton-based North Central Group Inc. plans to develop the 156-room hotel at 430 W. State St., near Fiserv Forum and the new Landmark Credit Union Live. It would have 40 full-time employees.

The Common Council in 2025 approved zoning for the hotel site.