RACINE COUNTY, Wisc. — The newly opened Hotel Verdant in Racine has some local talent running the kitchen with Kevin Coulter leading the show.
The Racine native said after building his career as a traveling chef, and spending long periods away from family, he landed the perfect opportunity with the hotel as its executive chef.
“I was getting tired, getting a little burnt out, and then all of a sudden I was super rejuvenated when I get this phone call,” he recalled. “I said this is going to be in Racine, like in Racine, Wisconsin!?”
Mike O’Connor, with Dominion Properties, is one of the hotel’s owners. He told TMJ4’s Tahleel Mohieldin that when he first saw the property in downtown Racine he was intrigued.
"Why would this good-looking property be vacant for 40 years right in the main square downtown?” He questioned. “So that started the process.”
He said after doing their research, he and his colleagues learned the downtown location had been home to a hotel once before in 1835 but it burnt down, and then in the late 1800s it first became a department store.
O'Conner said even though the Dominion couldn't secure any bank financing, they moved forward with the $42 million project because they believed a hotel was exactly what downtown Racine needed.
"Racine has been seen as a city that's on the upswing and it has a great way of changing people's minds when they get downtown and they see what a beautiful city it is,” he said.
He also pointed to companies like Microsoft, SC Johnson, and Modine bringing business travelers to the area and the support they got from Racine city leaders.
Work done to the building in the 90s, for a project that never came to fruition, also helped make it a better investment for Dominion.
O’Connor said company leaders realized issues with lead and asbestos had been addressed and that infrastructure for elevator shafts and fire escapes was already in place, which saved them a lot of money in development.
“Instead of tearing a building down and throwing it in a landfill, we’re giving it new life," O'Connor said. "I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve run into local business owners that are like 'I renewed my lease because this hotel was coming. I knew that this was going to be great for foot traffic."
He also said part of the reason they could do a project of this scale, with no bank financing, was because they received new market and historic tax credits, plus a second mortgage from the city.
The company also invested in sustainable building practices like solar panels, wind turbines, and geothermal heating and cooling, earning Hotel Verdant a LEED gold certification.
Construction finished on the hotel in August 2023, so this spring and summer will be the first time it's available during peak hotel season.
The 80-room hotel features a fitness center, sauna, rooftop bar, two ballrooms, and two restaurants--restaurants where Chef Coulter gets to feel at home in more ways than one.
He said he's looking forward to bringing some of the experiences he gained during his travels to the place he grew up.
"For me, it means the world. I'm able to continue raising my family and getting to show them, what it is that I do day in and day out," Coulter said. "They get the chance to come into a restaurant that I get to be a part of and that was something that wasn't possible when I was traveling all the time."
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