Charles Bailey is moving ahead with plans for a second Kinn MKE Guesthouse boutique hotel location, this one on the northeast corner of Broadway and Michigan Street in Downtown Milwaukee.
Construction is slated to begin soon on the 32-room hotel, designed by Milwaukee’s Vetter Architects, and Bailey hopes to open at 600 N. Broadway by late summer.
Five of the rooms will be pet friendly, says Bailey, and he’s seeking an operator for a 2,000-square-foot restaurant space (as well as a GM for the entire property). There will also be a 6,000-square-foot rooftop event space.
"(There will be a) common room, kitchen and conference area on each floor so that guests – not unlike in Bay View – can rent out a floor to themselves," says Bailey.
Bailey opened the first Kinn in an 1895 building in Bay View. It has just eight rooms.
The new hotel is located just across the street from the new Huron office and retail development on Broadway and from the 1874 building that is expected to be converted into a new tasting room, bottle shop and pilot distillery for Central Standard Craft Distillery.
In spring 2019, Bailey sought to add five floors to the top of the 1868 building, but that is no longer the plan.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
