Rick Wiegand, the owner of the Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee, has announced plans to expand the property with new convention space and accommodations, The Business Journal of Milwaukee reported last week.
Wiegland, who is requesting city support for the $25 million project, hopes to begin construction later this year so he can open the expansion before the economy fully recovers and demand for hotel rooms rebounds.
"This has been ready to go for a good year-and-a-half to two years, and we've waited long enough for the current economy, or recession, to end," Wiegland told the Business Journal. "My sense is to build it now when we are still recovering."
Wiegland, who also owns a six-story apartment building west of the hotel, said he plans to build a 42,800-square-foot addition between the two buildings, stretching between the second and eighth floors so that hotel guests can drive beneath it. His plans currently call for the addition of 21,000 square feet of meeting space — including new banquet rooms, ballrooms and meeting rooms — as well as 46 new guest rooms that would be housed in the apartment building, which he plans to renovate.
Future plans for the hotel — which currently has 133 guest rooms and 3,000 square feet of meeting space — also include a new spa and fitness center, which will eventually be built on a parking lot north of the hotel.