Under new ownership, the
Radisson University Hotel near the
University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis will soon be re-imagined as an "upscale, independent, lifestyle" destination, according to Susan Weinberg, the university's director of real estate.
Recently the university's Board of Regents approved a new 50-year lease on the land, the Minnesota Daily
reports.
The 1985-built hotel has 304 guest rooms, more than 20,202 square feet
of meeting space, and a fitness center, according to a Minneapolis/St.
Paul Business Journal
story from late last year. An
Applebee's restaurant, University Lounge
wine bar,
Great Clips,
Starbucks Coffee, and a
TCF Bank branch are
housed in the building, it states.
Platinum Equity, a California private equity firm, plans to renovate the entire place, from top to bottom,
including guest rooms, public spaces and conference rooms, though the specifics are unknown at this time, Weinberg says.
She hopes that the changes "will better serve the university community."
Improved
conference facilities, more attractive rooms, and a good mix of
first-floor retail could generate higher occupancy rates, which is to
the school's benefit, she says. The university frequently hosts events in the hotel's conference spaces and it puts up faculty and staff recruits and visiting athletic teams at the hotel.
She says the university has been advised that Platinum Equity will spend more than $6 million upon acquisition of the hotel, which sits on college property. Minneapolis-based Maddux Hotel Corp. is the current owner, she says.
Richfield Hospitality Inc., from Denver, will run the hotel.
The hotel is likely to get a new name, but that's still up in the air, says Weiberg, adding that renovations will need to wrap up by the spring of 2014 when the
Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line, which will run through campus, will be operational.
Once the purchase agreement is closed on, "There'll be a lot more information," she says.
Source: Susan Weinberg, director of real estate, University of Minnesota
Writer: Anna Pratt