JANESVILLE, Wis. — If you saw the inside of an old hotel in Janesville 18 months ago, you might have argued demolition was the best option. To put it simply: it was incredibly deteriorated.
Since then, the building’s owner has worked to restore it.
“This is the neatest old building in Janesville,” owner Jim Grafft said. “This is probably the most significant building in downtown Janesville as far as the notoriety of it.”
According to the Rock County Historical Society, on August 23, 1929, the Janesville Gazette announced that its contest to name the city’s newest hotel resulted in the name “Monterey.” The Art Deco hotel opened on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1930, at the southeast corner of High and West Milwaukee streets.
A portion of the building was built in 1880 and served as the Grand Hotel. In 1930, the remodel was completed. It was designed by architect Paul Frederick Olsen of the Frank Perry Firm of Chicago.
In 1960, John and Jacqueline Kennedy stayed here while on a presidential campaign trip. It currently stands empty.
“It’s always piqued the interest of the whole city and the whole county,” Grafft said.
Since the 1990s, the hotel sat abandoned. Back in 2020, the city of Janesville struck a tax increment financing deal with Grafft that solidified plans to move forward with the building’s restoration.
The latest phase of the building’s life will be as 51 luxury apartments.
Keith Swetlik, the construction superintendent for Cardinal Capital Management, said the work to complete the apartments had to completely redo the inside of the structure. However, there are some elements of the original hotel that have stayed through the renovation.
“The outside of the building and the existing structure of the building has remained intact as it was originally built,” said Swetlik.
The $9 million project was expected to be completed in December 2022, but industry-wide supply chain issues set them back.
“We have items that we’ve ordered that are over a year out that have been on order for over a year that are necessary to complete courses of construction that we don’t have in hand,” Swetlik said.
As the construction now heads into these final months of renovations, the project is expected to be complete in April.
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