For Sale: The Menomonee Falls Radisson Hotel

A Waukesha County Circuit court judge on Monday granted a receivership attorney expanded powers to market and sell the Radisson Hotel property, which has been in foreclosure. 

Receivership attorney Seth Dizard has overseen operations at the hotel since 2011 when the village appointed him to keep operations status quo as the foreclosure suit proceeded. The court in July ruled that the last remaining owner of the five-member hotel group, Jim Heyden, would need to pay back $15 million loan to the village. Heyden has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, JSOnline reports. 

Dizard will now begin the process of interviewing commercial real estate brokers for an eventual sale. The village's attorney, Randall Crocker, said selling the hotel would result in a higher price than a sheriff's foreclosure sale, JSOnline reports.

Any proposed sale would need Circuit Court Judge Jame Kieffer's approval. 

In April 2010, the village inked a development agreement with Lodging Investors of Menomonee Falls that featured a $17.65 million loan to kickstart the hotel construction. The ownership group included Heyden, David Gilbert, Grosskopf, Paul Nooyen and William Krueger.

However, things quickly went south after the village approved the loan. In October 2010, Gilbert, who was a 10 percent owner of the hotel, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. According to documents from the U.S. Western District Court, Gilbert’s assets were worth some $3.3 million, but he had outstanding liabilities of $106.4 million.

That was just months after Gilbert provided necessary documentation to ensure he had necessary net worth to account for his portion of the hotel’s value.

Then, Grosskopf’s hotel management firm, Professional Hospitality, became embroiled in a civil fraud lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court. According to the suit, Madison investor, Gregg Raup, is accusing Professional Hospitality of wrongfully diverting $1.2 million from hotels in Beloit and Green Bay to the Radisson Hotel in Menomonee Falls.

The village appointed Dizard to oversee the hotel's operations in November 2011 after the ownership group failed to make its initial repayments on the village's loan. Since appointing the receiver, the hotel's financial obligations have been paid and its revenues have increased. The hotel's operations are expected to continue uninterrupted for the foreseeable future.