Downtown Milwaukee hotels hope for brighter future after bleak 2020
Share
A rendering of the planned Hotel Third Ward, which is one of the downtown-area hotels that’s been proposed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like most everywhere else, downtown Milwaukee’s hotels had a rough go of it in 2020 a year plagued by a global pandemic that for a time virtually shut down the market. But industry leaders…
Want to Read More?
But industry leaders say there are indicators that things will improve this year and beyond.
Colin Walsh, general manager of the 481-room downtown Hyatt Regency Milwaukee hotel and president of the Greater Milwaukee Hotel & Lodging Association, recalled that things took a turn for the worse on March 13, 2020. It was Friday the 13th.
Plus: Conagra closing Milwaukee plant and logistics company moving to Bay View. By Jeramey Jannene - Jan 31st, 2021 06:27 pm //end headline wrapper ?>The Public Service Building in August 2020. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Most downtown workers will never know that the system they rely on to heat their workplace flooded in 2020. But they will pay for at least some of the over $60 million in damage.
On May 18, the We Energies steam tunnel system, which delivers steam heat from the Valley Power Plant to a number of downtown buildings, flooded following a significant rainstorm.
Millions of gallons of water poured into the tunnel system. The surge overwhelmed pumps, cut off steam access to half of the system’s 400 customers and damaged buildings. By chance, the building that suffered the most damage was We Energies’ own headquarters, the Public Service Building at 231 W. Michigan St.