urbanMSP

Since we have a generic thread for restaurant news, I thought I'd kick on off for hotels.

Over the weekends, the Star Tribune reported that the Ameriprise financial is in the process of purchasing the Ivy Hotel. It may be a bit odd for Ameriprise to step into this space, but they do bring quite a few financial advisers in for training at the Service Center just two block away and there of several dozen Ameriprise employees based in other cities who travel to Minneapolis on a weekly basis. When I worked at the Grand Hotel, we typically had 5-8 Ameriprise guests each week night.

http://www.startribune.com/business/167 ... ml?refer=y

Just FYI, The Ivy will become a Conrad next month, and be managed by Hilton...that is of course assuming all goes according to plan.

I don't have a subscription to Finance and Commerce, so I can't see the details, but here's an article about a planned boutique hotel in the former Nate's Clothing building in the Warehouse District:

http://finance-commerce.com/2012/10/bou ... -building/

Without seeing the details this sounds great. Hotels bring some good activity, and this will fill up another building in the area.

I don't have a subscription to Finance and Commerce, so I can't see the details, but here's an article about a planned boutique hotel in the former Nate's Clothing building in the Warehouse District:

http://finance-commerce.com/2012/10/bou ... -building/

Without seeing the details this sounds great. Hotels bring some good activity, and this will fill up another building in the area.

Fantastic news. I'm excited to learn more.

Being a Nate/Nathan, it was always one of my favorites

Didn't they gut this building a year or two ago with the intent of turning it into apartments?

I don't have a subscription to Finance and Commerce, so I can't see the details, but here's an article about a planned boutique hotel in the former Nate's Clothing building in the Warehouse District:

http://finance-commerce.com/2012/10/bou ... -building/

Without seeing the details this sounds great. Hotels bring some good activity, and this will fill up another building in the area.

Fantastic news. I'm excited to learn more.

I second that motion! It brings another layer of activity to that block. Great location near the LRT.

Dowmtown Radisson to become a Radisson Blu...http://www.startribune.com/business/173946921.html

The downtown Minneapolis Radisson, where the late Curt Carlson's hotel experiment began in 1962, will be converted to a Radison Blu next year with a project budget of $30 million.

"Blu cannot be without Minneapolis," Kirschke said of the location that once featured the finest in Minneapolis dining and its own restaurant orchestra known as the Golden Strings. "It will become a flagship. We need good representation in the heart of the city."

http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2012/ ... -buildings

Some info on the Nate's Building hotel on 1st & 4th.

http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2012/ ... -buildings

Some info on the Nate's Building hotel on 1st & 4th.

A couple things:

1. As the article stresses, mixed-use buildings with a retail component have often found themselves lacking that retail lynchpin. Instead, storefronts are showing up empty, even in 100% leased buildings. I realize this isn't ideal but isn't it better to have the OPTION of retail if/when it makes sense than to build without that component only to find that what an area would really need is more retail? As long as the buidling owner/operator is getting by, how big of a deal is an empty storefront? Worst-case scenario the retail is empty for a while -- put up a temporary mural. I don't see what the big issue would be, unless the financial success of the building heavily depended on that retail component.

2. I, for one, would never ever want to put myself up at a hotel right on one of the busiest nightlife scenes in the USA, so I wonder about the prospects of this "boutique hotel" site. Maybe since the developer is from out of town they don't know what they're getting into, but since people use hotels primarily to sleep the outside noise levels around this area on some weekdays and almost every weekend would be too loud for most guests I think. Also, this area in particular had been under the radar from law enforcement looking to crack down on street violence downtown.....meaning this may be a particularly uncomfortable place to lodge for a night or weekend if you aren't used to the rowdy crowds that may surround your hotel front door!

I wonder if, with the Raddisson becoming a Blu, it would open up the regular Raddisson marque for a new flagship if that convention center hotel ever gets built.

2. I, for one, would never ever want to put myself up at a hotel right on one of the busiest nightlife scenes in the USA, so I wonder about the prospects of this "boutique hotel" site. Maybe since the developer is from out of town they don't know what they're getting into, but since people use hotels primarily to sleep the outside noise levels around this area on some weekdays and almost every weekend would be too loud for most guests I think. Also, this area in particular had been under the radar from law enforcement looking to crack down on street violence downtown.....meaning this may be a particularly uncomfortable place to lodge for a night or weekend if you aren't used to the rowdy crowds that may surround your hotel front door!

What if people want to be by the nightlife? As long as there's adequate soundproofing in the building from outside street noise I don't see that being an issue. While on a drastically different end of the spectrum, this argument is almost like saying that a hotel in Times Square wouldn't work when there's plenty that prove otherwise.

Yeah, a whole lot of old people that hate fun on this board. Plenty of people would like to stay at a hotel in the heart of it all, with all that entails. Just because you don't want to doesn't mean nobody does.

You don't see me rallying against prune farms because I don't drink prune juice (see, because old people drink prune juice and old boring people hate fun and noise, so they would love prune farms, it is a bad joke).

What if people want to be by the nightlife? As long as there's adequate soundproofing in the building from outside street noise I don't see that being an issue. While on a drastically different end of the spectrum, this argument is almost like saying that a hotel in Times Square wouldn't work when there's plenty that prove otherwise.

Hence the begining of my statement: "I for one...." I PERSONALLY can't see this succeeding well, that's all. You may be their #1 client base, so I may be barking up the wrong tree, IDK.

It doesn't help that this is supposed to be a "boutique hotel" either. I'd be glad to be wrong guys, so settle down with all of the Debbie Downer bullshit. I'm not anti-development, and I'm not against partying.....I was just adding my $0.02 to the news.

I wonder if, with the Raddisson becoming a Blu, it would open up the regular Raddisson marque for a new flagship if that convention center hotel ever gets built.

I'm thinking the new convention center hotel will be a brand new to the Twin Cities, probably a hotel chain that has previous experience with running a very large skyscraper hotel.

What if people want to be by the nightlife? As long as there's adequate soundproofing in the building from outside street noise I don't see that being an issue. While on a drastically different end of the spectrum, this argument is almost like saying that a hotel in Times Square wouldn't work when there's plenty that prove otherwise.

Exactly. A warehouse district hotel will actually attract people who want to stay where the action is. It's a busy place on weekend nights , but it's not nearly as violent or rowdy as the media has hyped it up to be. And remember, this hotel will be one block from LRT which will be a selling point. I think if you look at the crystal ball, the area around this proposal is evolving into an increasingly residential district, especially to the north. This area is going to mature nicely into a great mix of activities with entertainment still very strong. It will be quite wonderful.

I'm hoping that sometime fairly soon, some of these clubs (and the problems associated with some of them) are replaced with establishments that cater more to the North Loop crowd that's growing strong. Craft beer, ethnic food, ya know... That will be nice to see. Having more uses like this hotel, and all the housing going in within a 15-minute walk, should make this area begin to diversify beyond a sometimes-rowdy club scene.

I've always kind of thought that whole neighborhood is "wasted" on the rowdy bro bars that are mostly just active at night, when it's too dark to fully take it all in. Most of the patrons likely don't appreciate the architecture either. (Or at least in the state they are in when they hang out there.)

I, too, look forward to this neighborhood adapting to better serve the surrounding communities and becoming a place that is not a ghost town during the day.

Depends on what type of "action" you guys are talking about staying near. The action that was cops macing large mobs of people when the clubs get out? That's really all the action that's been around that part of downtown late at night lately. Now, it sounds like most of those clubs are getting the boot so hopefully this hotel will be the start of something new on this street, but it really depends on what replaces the old clubs. I'm not sure having Uncle Buck's "kick ass" Party Bar just down the street is the best selling point for a boutique hotel. Hopefully this really is the start of something new though.

On a side note, does anyone else smell the awful odor every time they walk by this building on the first ave side? It's right on my walk home from work...it's like they have an open sewage pipe right on the side of the building.

On a side note, does anyone else smell the awful odor every time they walk by this building on the first ave side? It's right on my walk home from work...it's like they have an open sewage pipe right on the side of the building.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/techno ... cant/3678/

Like DC, in Minneapolis "the remaining combined sewers are concentrated around the oldest parts of the city." Feel free to peruse this history of combined sewer separation in Minneapolis at your leisure:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/publicwork ... so_history