MILWAUKEE — The proposed Moxy Hotel was supposed to be voted on by the Milwaukee Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhood and Development Committee Tuesday morning. The vote has been pushed back due to backlash and legal issues.
The proposed hotel would be built on the corner of North Vel Phillips Ave. and West State St.
On Monday, the City of Milwaukee hosted a press conference with labor unions to express support for the project.
”I want to see this get developed, because it presents an opportunity for people who live in Milwaukee,” says Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “I think it’s a project that should move forward because it creates jobs for people who live here in Milwaukee. We often talk about the need for good paying, family supporting union jobs in Milwaukee. That’s exactly what this is. And so we should support it.”
The project is opposed by the Milwaukee Area Service & Hospitality Workers Union.
Their statement says, in part:
“As a union representing service and hospitality workers, the vast majority of whom punch a clock downtown and bring a paycheck home to the North and Near South Side neighborhoods left behind by the economic development approach of Milwaukee, we recognize in this project more of what has failed our community.
Instead of the highest and best hospitality use on one of the most developable pieces of land, sandwiched between Fiserv Forum, the Wisconsin Center District, Turner Hall and the new FPC Live venue, NCG Hospitality proposes a 156 room limited service hotel instead of the over 300 room full service hotel that was a linchpin of City zoning approvals, and $47 million in taxpayer funds back in 2015. NCG Hospitality wants to benefit from the publicly-subsidized investment but not for the benefit of the City. The only reason they’ve proposed this project instead of a higher and better use is that they don’t want to build a hotel to compete with their other property in the Deer District, the Trade Hotel. That might be good business for NCG Hospitality but it’s bad land-use and economic development for the City of Milwaukee.
Accepting this subpar project means lower assessed values and lower tax increment in downtown TIF District #84. That means less investment in development in the neighborhoods of the North and Near South Sides cooks and cleaners, servers and security guards call home. It means fewer resources available for affordable housing and housing stock improvements.
The proposed Moxy Hotel is a bad deal for City of Milwaukee residents, taxpayers and working people. The Common Council should reject it to ensure we get a better project that advances our interests instead of just padding the profits of out-of-town developers.”
The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for May 28. The agenda is not yet set.
