US: A historic building in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, will open in January 2024 as an aparthotel, the first in the city.
The property on the 300 block of East Wilson Street includes the four-storey red brick building built in 1907 to house the Madison Saddlery Company, which manufactured harnesses and other hardware. The company closed in 1930 as horses and carriages gave way to tractors and cars, and in 1931, the building became the home of Rubin’s Furniture.
Middleton-based developer NCG Hospitality has had the property under contract since 2019, after Rubin’s Furniture announced plans to move to a larger space. NCG, which manages more than 25 hotels in four states, planned to demolish much of the building and its two newer two-storey additions, said Andy Inman, NCG’s chief development officer. The company planned to build a 45-room boutique hotel called the Wilson Street Hotel in its place.
But the company has changed direction and is now opting for an aparthotel conversion, partly down to rising construction costs. “It just wasn’t coming together. It was a very expensive project to try to make work in the new environment after 2020,” Inman said. “It had really beautiful bones. It was tired and needed some updating and refreshing, but we thought, ‘Why not preserve what’s there?’”
The project, named The Saddlery, will include 46 units, including studios, one-bedrooms with and without dens, and two-bedrooms. All will include a full kitchen with full-size refrigerator, stove, oven and eating area. One-bedroom and two-bedroom suites will have a separate living room. Most suites will have a washing machine and dryer, in addition to shared on-site laundry facilities.
The Saddlery will be the first fully independent hotel for the company, whose portfolio consists of franchised hotels with the likes of Marriott and Hilton. Inman added: “It’ll be the first building in downtown Madison where the same rooms are available for both short-term stays and long-term rentals of weeks or months. Those models exist in other markets but there’s nothing like it in Madison.”
