urbanMSP

That's more saddening than seeing the old film of the Metropolitan building. I envy you who are old enough to see those buildings. Seriously.

He also oddly seems to not mention in the article that while the Radisson still exists in the same spot, that original building was torn down in the 80s. Or maybe I just missed it.

In another thread, I'm trying to mount an argument to preserve Nye's. It is much loved, and by all outward appearances, somebody should be able to make good money running it.

In this thread, I'll mount an argument that there wasn't much to be done to prevent these hotel demolitions. The 1980's were a different time. Unlike the Metropolitan Building, which was mostly leased and financially viable, many of these hotels (by this time) were thread-bare and functionally obsolete. They look charming to our eyes now, but 1980's Hennepin Avenue was a rough, sour place and these rough, unloved hotels weren't attracting many customers.

I wish as much as the next guy that we still had some of these beasts around, but I think it's pretty easy to condemn the demolitions without understanding the reality of the times. It's theoretically possible that these spots could have been saved, but nobody was stepping up to the plate to do the saving. As I recall, the most viable proposal to save the Nicollet was to renovate it into a giant homeless shelter.

119-room Holiday Inn planned in century-old downtown building

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... y-old.html

Thank god... Now will they please take down the green awning?

Well, green is their color.

Also, good to see more midrange hotels.

What ever happened to the hotel proposed for the Plymouth Building?

Dead, probably?

119-room Holiday Inn planned in century-old downtown building

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... y-old.html

Thank god... Now will they please take down the green awning?

As of today, at least, that awning is gone. I don't know when it happened, though.

Thought the Holiday Inn project was on 2nd next to the Tri-Tech building in that old office building.

Thought the Holiday Inn project was on 2nd next to the Tri-Tech building in that old office building.

It is - I think this was just a misquote.

So what is the status of the Depot hotel addition? Is it just proposed or is there actual construction going on with this project? The Strib made it sound like it was going on , but last time I was by I saw nothing of the sort unless it was happening with demolition on the inside first.

I can speak on the addition at the Depot. I am an employee. Construction will begin this summer, June/July. There will be a one story addition onto the current Renaissance portion of the building. Along with the addition of the rooms, the hotel will undergo a full remodel, touching public spaces and guest rooms. It will be a large investment for the area and it is really going to make the exterior and interiors looks great.

Awesome. Also does anyone else notice we're getting a lot more legit insider info than usual? Just this past week I think we've had 3 newer accounts tell us some insider stuff.

No new updates on this from the Q1 report. They did say they've gotten very strong interest from multiple hotels around the world.

Are we not close to a saturation point here with Hotel rooms in the metro area? We have several rooms going up at MOA and Bloomington Central, there are rooms planned in other burbs, and more rooms being planned for St. Paul near the Xcel. I'd be curious as to how many proposed rooms there are at this point, with out this project.

Plus we have a proposed Hotel at the airport that will reduce the need for travelers to have to leave the airport and go to these other hotel near by.

No, not at all. The downtown Minneapolis hotel market is very strong, with very high occ rates. The only new hotel to open downtown in nearly 10 years is the Hampton...plenty of room for more.

We've added a lot of hotel rooms in the metro, but so many hotel chains have started up new concepts (generally super modern, limited amenities, aimed at millennials and biz travelers), so there will be many brands wanting to add new facilities in walkable areas. Walkability is pretty big in the hotel world these days. Even some of the historically budget chains are getting in on the action (Red Lion's Hotel RL, Best Western's Vib, Radisson Red etc...)

Radisson is not historically a "budget chain"! They did have quite a slide there for a while....but they are not in the same ballpark as Best Western! ha. And Blu is upscale.

I realize that - didn't mean to commit a forum sin. It still it fits the trend of legacy brands offering newer, so-called hipper brands in urban areas. I realize Blu is upscale. Red is planned to be more affordable. Minneapolis is large and healthy enough that its urban core (or surrounding neighborhoods) should see a good selection of these offerings coming to town - like AC.

Agreed.

keep in mind that the downtown hotel market is driven primarily by business travelers. If business is up, occupancy rates go up. While we like to think there is a lot of tourism draw for downtown, there really isn't. We do get state wide group events like state championships for sports and fine arts over specific weekends, but most hotels downtown have very low rates during the weekends in an effort to draw people into the core of the city who would typically be looking for a hotel into the suburbs.

We have added over 1,500 new hotel rooms to downtown minneapolis since 2000, but most of those rooms were added between 2000 and 2007. There's definitely room for 2-3 more 200 room hotels.

But don't forget about some of the major events coming in the near future, such as the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, and a handful of larger conventions (or so I hear). Oddly, cities sometimes seem to build hotel supply for events like these, which never made sense to me and still doesn't. In Cleveland right now, I've heard of a handful of hotel projects that are under construction or in the works, citing the Republican National Convention in 2016 as the impetus for their development.