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Muellner Building rate hikes eyed

City sees chance to get more revenue from popular venue

By Stefanie Scott

Sept. 2, 2009

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Mary Catanese

Jesse and Stephanie McWilliams are greeted by well-wishers as they enter the Tosa Room of Muellner Building for their weddingreception. The facility is becoming a hot spot for receptions and other events, and city officials are considering raising the rates next year.

Mary Catanese

It's 6:50 a.m. on a weekday at Hart Park. Bicyclists quietly cruise the trails, squirrels scamper across the dew-covered grass and a pack of women huddle in the parking lot for a serious negotiation session.

It's not unusual for several brides-to-be to gather before the Parks Department opens making sure they none of their desired wedding reception dates would cause booking conflicts.

That's because the women have learned about one of Wauwatosa's best-kept secrets: Hart Park's Muellner Building is one of the best deals when it comes to renting space for a gathering.

Seeing an opportunity to bring in more revenue, the board is considering increasing rental rates for 2010 and requiring security deposits. An outline of changes was provided to the mayor for budgeting purposes, but the Parks Board will continue to discuss the issue at September meetings.

"This building was such a bargain we needed to do something to get more revenue," board member Jill Gaertner said.

New rates still a bargain

This year, the building's largest room, which has a capacity of 450 people, has a full-day rate of $720. That number would jump to $1,000 for Wauwatosa residents and $1,500 for nonresidents, under the 2010 rates proposed by city staff.

"That's definitely reasonable. Most of the Milwaukee-area venues cost more than that," said local wedding planner Jeanette Leicht.

She compared the rental fee to that of the Miller Pavilion on the lakefront downtown, which she called the most reasonably priced at $1,400. In the suburbs, a middle-of-the-line hall rental averages $1,000.

But part of the savings comes from people bringing in their own food and decorations, Gaertner said. Most venues require spending an additional minimum amount of money for catering and bartending , and also charge fees for cake-cutting, champagne-pouring and other services.

"We're not in competition with the private sector, we have no wait staff here," she said. "People come here because it provides charm and quaintness and they want to support the community."

At the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Mayfair Road, just using a banquet room for a Saturday evening wedding costs $5,000, said sales director Patrick Palmer. Decide to go with in-house catering and the price starts at $14,000.

"It's a hot market right now, so I definitely see how it could work for them," he said.

In fact, many businesses that cater to the wedding world are booked out two years, he said. However, the Parks Department only accepts bookings a year in advance for residents and six months for nonresidents.

More than just weddings

But weddings count as only a portion of the Muellner Building rentals. Bridal and baby showers, anniversary and birthday parties, and folk-dancing and scrapbooking groups count among the reasons people have reserved space.

For these, the building has rooms that accommodate groups of 20 to 120 guests. While a five-hour minimum rental had been recommended, Mayor Jill Didier suggested bringing that requirement down to three hours, which would allow more bookings.

"We should be trying to capture two events in the same day," she said. "A five-hour minimum is too aggressive and we will miss opportunities."

City staff initially questioned whether custodians would be able to clean up and set up rooms between gatherings. But the mayor suggested they let customers know that they would be responsible for sweeping, stacking chairs or other light clean-up duties.

In the future, the Parks Board could come up with a list of setup and cleanup activities and assign a fee if customers want a higher level of customer service.

Didier also suggested requiring a refundable security deposit to protect the city against some of the problems that have been occurring, such as filthy bathrooms and backed kitchen sinks.

"If everything goes as planned, they would get that security deposit back," she said.

Board member Tom Ertel also said the building could court groups such as neighborhood associations or civic .