Construction of a boutique hotel in the dilapidated Heritage House Inn is set to begin this summer.
The City Council unanimously approved a handful of agreements with Gorman & Company, the Milwaukee-based firm hoping to develop the downtown property, 5708 Eighth Ave., into a luxury 80-room hotel, restaurant and bar, exercise facility and conference center. The project is expected to cost $26 million.
During a special Public Works Committee meeting before the council meeting, Ted Matkom, the Wisconsin market president for Gorman, said the company has worked for three years to get to this point and is eager to start construction.
“We’ve waited for this day for a long time,” Matkom said. “We’ve had many ebbs and flows in terms of this project going forward — stopping, going forward, stopping. Finally, everyone from the state to the city, everybody got on the same page.”
