New Hotel to Focus on Extended Stays

By Deneen Smith
Kenosha News

A new hotel under construction in Kenosha will cater to business travelers.

Kenosha-based Bear Realty and Mills Enterprises are building the 90-unit Candlewood  Suites at the Cornerstone Commons development on the northeast corner of Highway 50 and 104th Avenue in Kenosha, with the hotel located on 74th Street east of 104th.

The three-story hotel will feature studio and one-bedroom suites, its guests expected to be primarily business travelers on extended assignments or relocating families.

Each suite will include a kitchen and separate sleeping areas. The hotel will also include an in-house convenience store, laundry area and fitness center.

About 60 percent of the guests are expected to stay for between one week and a year, with the remaining 40 percent expected to be more typical hotel guests.

The hotel is expected to open next summer.

Steve Mills, owner of Bear Realty and Mills Enterprises, said he believes there is a need for an extended-stay hotel in Kenosha County, especially with the growth of commercial and industrial businesses along with Interstate 94 corridor.

"With all the growth in the marketplace, there hasn't been a hotel built in 10 years," Mills said.

He said he expects the hotel to cater to employees, consultants and contract workers for businesses in nearby industrial parks, and potential developments including Abbott Laboratories in Pleasant Prairie and a proposed casino in Kenosha.

Mills Enterprises and Bear Realty build and manage residential and commercial properties in the county, including apartments, condominiums and office buildings, as well as selling and leasing real estate.

"Hotels are just another component of the real estate business," Mills said.

He said he looks for the "highest and best use" for a site, and that the Candlewood  Suites hotel was a good fit for his company's Cornerstone Commons development, which now includes retail and office buildings as well as a preschool.

The hotel will take up about three acres of what was initially a 300-acre property when Mills' company purchased it in the 1980s.

Mills Enterprises also owns a 136-room hotel in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and is considering building a hotel on another property.

"We're looking at doing more hospitality-type ventures in the future," Mills said.

Kinseth Hospitality Companies, a hospitality management and ownership organization based in North Liberty, Iowa, will manage the hotel. The company owns or operates 34 hotels and 14 chain-affiliated restaurants in eight states.