The former Radisson hotel on the northwest corner of Mayfair Road and North Avenue has been closed and vacant since last year. So, when a security guard spotted several people enter the building early Nov. 11, Wauwatosa police were notified and responded around 12:30 a.m.
"Officers searched the building and arrested seven subjects," Lt. Cory Wex said in a written statement provided to Tosa Forward News. The suspects, four adults and three underage individuals, were all charged with misdemeanors. One adult was charged with loitering, and the others face charges of trespassing.
Police did not release the identities of the suspects or provide any explanation for their entering the building at 2303 N. Mayfair Road.
A WISN-TV report noted that some of the suspects were in costumes — reportedly dressed as Care Bears — when they were led out of the former hotel in handcuffs.
The building has been eyed for redevelopment since early last year, when owner Decade Properties closed it to focus more on properties it owns in Florida, according to a Milwaukee Business Journal report on the former 150-room hotel. It was built in 1972 and first opened as a Sheraton.
It briefly reopened in July 2024 to accommodate delegates to the Republican National Convention taking place that month in Milwaukee, but the hotel has been vacant ever since.
