Hilton Garden Inn brings new hotel rooms to downtown Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE -- There's a new hotel open for guests in downtown Milwaukee. The Hilton Garden Inn Milwaukee Downtown began accepting guests as of 3 p.m. on Tuesday, November 13th.

The Hilton Garden Inn (located on the corner of East Michigan Street and North Broadway) features nearly 130 guest rooms and 4,500 square feet of meeting space. That's a plus in a city that has often been criticized for not having enough hotel rooms to accommodate larger conventions.

The hotel also features a bar and grille and a 24-hour convenience store inside.

The new hotel started its $19 million transformation from the Loyalty Building in late 2011. It's considered one of the city's architectural treasures and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was also an original headquarters of Northwestern Mutual Life around 1886.

"Right when you walk in, you feel the kind of historic, 1950s, to me, 1950s look. I feel Frank Sinatra's gonna come around the corner and say 'hello Xavier, how are you doing?'" visitor Xavier Mendez said.

Hilton already has a 700-room hotel across the river on Wisconsin Avenue.

Mendez was the hotel's second visitor to check in on Tuesday. He had no idea he was part of Hilton history.

"I didn't until I received my extra points as well as my handy root beer package," Mendez said.