The Forest County Potawatomi Community’s new .5 million, 19-story, 381-room hotel at the tribe’s Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee will open August 19. The upscale hotel will draw casino customers from a 100-150 mile radius instead of the former 25 miles, said Hotel Director Hassan Abdel-Moneim.
The entertainment and hotel complex has grown from a 2,000-seat bingo hall that opened in 1991 to a major destination featuring restaurants, banquet rooms and the 500-seat Northern Lights Theater. The new hotel offers 365 standard rooms an d 16 suites, plus a 3,000 square foot presidential suite that will go for $4,000 a night. It features six TVs, two fireplaces, a soaking tub and an outdoor balcony with an panoramic view of the city, plus 24/7 limo service. The average daily rate will range from $150 to $250, depending on the season, said Ryan Amundson, Potawatomi Hotel & Casino spokesman. Amenities will include Locavore, a full-service casual restaurant, a lobby bar, Stone Creek Coffee shop and 12,000 square feet of meeting rooms. Abdel-Moneim said the hotel already has booked three group events that will spill over to other hotels. “We’re starting to bring business to the city,” he said. “Our focus is on regional and national business.”
Because it was built on non-tribal land, the hotel will pay property and room taxes to the city and county. Unlike the casino, it is smoke-free. More than 230 full- and part-time employees have been hired.
One competitor, the 243-room DoubleTree Milwaukee Downtown has done “fairly well” in attracting casino patrons, said General Manager Jeff Welk. “At this point, obviously, a lot of that will go away,” he noted. But it won’t be disastrous, Welk said, because the hotel and casino offer promotions together, makes up about 4 percent of the hotel’s total bookings. But he and other downtown operators are concerned that the Potawatomi Hotel might dramatically cut room rates during slow times, since some casinos consider their hotels “loss leaders.”
