Hotel Ivy owner plans luxury hotel for historic Minneapolis building

The local company that recently acquired Hotel Ivy is working on plans for another ultra-luxury hotel in downtown Minneapolis.

Heartland Realty Investors wants to convert the 12-story Plymouth Building at Sixth Street and Hennepin Avenue into a roughly 270-room Conrad hotel, according to sources with knowledge of the deal who asked to remain anonymous to protect client relationships. The company is under contract to buy the 104-year-old building and is finalizing a franchise agreement with McLean, Va.-based Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

Paul Wischermann, a local hotel consultant who is working for Heartland, declined to comment. Hilton officials could not be reached.

Conrad Hotels & Resorts is Hilton's second-most upscale hotel brand, trailing only Waldorf Astoria. There are 25 locations worldwide, but just four in the United States.

A Conrad hotel would immediately become one of the downtown Minneapolis' premier hotels, competing with the likes of Hotel Ivy and Graves 601 Hotel, said Tanya Pierson, the Minneapolis market director for HVS, a global hospitality company based in New York.

"It is a higher-end, luxury-level brand, similar to Ritz-Carlton and InterContinental," she said. "We have the Westin, the W and some other more boutique, high-end hotels, but we don't have the Ritz-Carltons and things that other downtown markets have."

A hotel at the Plymouth Building also would benefit from a prime location. It's within walking distance of Target Center, Target Field and numerous theaters.

Minneapolis-based Heartland is best known as an apartment developer, but it has made a big splash on the local hotel scene since buying the Holiday Inn Metrodome in late 2012. It rebranded that hotel as the Courtyard Minneapolis Downtown in September following a $17 million renovation, then closed on its acquisition of Hotel Ivy in December.

Reported by:  Minneapolis-St Paul Business Journal