The new 199 room hotel, at the southeast corner of Mayfair Road and Watertown Plank Road in Wauwatosa, will meet a growing demand for upscale hotel rooms, fine dining, conference space, and other hospitality amenities near the research park, the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, and the west-metro area of the Milwaukee market. The Crowne Plaza, billed as the "place to meet," will target business travelers, especially those with connections to the 80 companies at the research park, including GE Healthcare Technologies, and the institutions at the regional medical center, such as the Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Hospital.

The ground breaking was the culmination of an 18-month process undertaken by the research park to find a qualified developer to build an upscale project that met the stringent criteria of a request for proposals (RFP) that was issued in June of 2005. The Kaloti/Lane team won out over three other projects that were submitted. However, financing feasibility problems occurred in late 2005 with the original project, an Embassy Suites Hotel. This was caused in part by dramatic increases in energy prices and the impact on building product costs because of hurricane Katrina.

After the developer requested in early 2006 that the brand be changed to a Crowne Plaza, with a mix of suites and conventional rooms, the research park decided to reopen the RFP process to two of the other development teams that had submitted proposals earlier, giving them the option to modify their projects. All three proposals were again evaluated. After careful deliberation, the research park board decided to stay with the Kaloti/Lane team and approval was given for a change in brand in July 2006.