Midway to add aquatic center

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Sep 28, 2004 | by Cahalan, Steve

The Best Western Midway Hotel Riverfront Resort at 1835 Rose St. will create an aquatic recreation center by January in the hotel's indoor domed swimming pool area.

The project is expected to cost about $350,000 and includes installing a water slide and basketball hoops in the pool, and adding a wading pool with features for children.

"The wading pool will have a number of kiddie slides and squirting toys," said Scot Muehlmeier, who is one of the hotel's owners and a partner in Midway Hospitality Corp., which manages the hotel. The hotel is one of eight Best Western Midway Hotels owned by the Muehlmeier and Hummert families, both of the Milwaukee area.

"The whirlpool will stay, and will be redone" as part of the project, Muehlmeier said Monday.

"We're marketing to families who want to get away for a weekend to relax," hotel general manager Patti Stellmaker said of the project. But it also is aimed at attracting more business travelers and business meetings and conventions.

After the aquatic recreation center is completed, new events will be held there, possibly including scavenger hunts, Hula-Hoop contests and face painting. "We're trying to create positive, memorable experiences," Muehlmeier said of the planned activities. "These events will take it to another level."

The hotel opened in 1972 and is continuously being upgraded, Stellmaker said. About $500,000 in improvements, including the aquatic recreation center, are being made this year, she said. This fall, the hotel's exterior will be repainted and new canopies will be installed.

Executive-class rooms for business travelers have been created in part of the hotel.

"It's creating something on the North Side," Stellmaker said of the aquatic recreation center.