Eagan becoming a hotel hot spot, thanks to outlet mall and Vikings development

Eagan, buoyed by the metro area’s only retail outlet mall and the Minnesota Vikings’ move next spring, is fast becoming a hot spot for hotel development.

Three new hotels are in the works, and the owners of a 78-room Country Inn & Suites — which is the closest hotel to the Vikings’ future headquarters and practice areas — submitted plans this month to add 55 rooms, a restaurant and more meeting space.

Also this month, an ownership and development team that’s building an extended-stay Home2 Suites by Hilton next to Twin Cities Premium Outlets announced plans to build another hotel next door.

Last July, a 93-room Holiday Inn Express & Suites opened near Pilot Knob and Yankee Doodle roads, becoming the first hotel built in Eagan since 2002.

Meanwhile, the Vikings’ long-range plans for its huge Viking Lakes mixed-used development in northeast Eagan call for a conference center hotel to go along with the team’s headquarters, indoor and outdoor practice fields and a 6,000-seat outdoor stadium that could be used by high school and college teams.

When it comes to hotels, “convenience has always been king,” said Brent Cory, president and CEO of the Eagan Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled, to be honest,” Cory said of the city’s hotel boom. “Given Eagan’s close proximity to the airport and, of course, both downtowns, Eagan has always been considered a desirable location. Now with Viking Lakes, that just takes it over the top.”

Eagan currently has 16 hotels with 1,644 rooms; the occupancy rate hovers around 70 percent, Cory said.

In adjacent cities, Bloomington has the most hotels with 42 (8,742 rooms), followed by Burnsville with nine (869 rooms) and Inver Grove Heights with three (232 rooms).

STARTED WITH THE OUTLET MALL

The first whiff of the hotel building boom began in November 2013, when Morrissey Hospitality Cos. came forth with a plan to buy city-owned land and build a 123-room extended-stay hotel next to the outlet mall, which was just being built.

The mall opened in August 2014, but after several delays Morrissey Hospitality Cos. scrapped the project for a Home2 Suites in June 2016, citing several challenges, including a big-money investor who backed out.

No matter, as plans for a hotel at that site were revived two months later by J.R. Hospitality, a third-generation hotel company based in Eagan, and its partner in the project, Iowa-based Hawkeye Hotels.

The 119-room Home2 Suites will be ready for guests next spring, said Jay Bhakta, who runs J.R. Hospitality with his cousin Roshan Bhakta.

Earlier this month, the Eagan Economic Development Authority, which is made up of city council members, agreed to sell a city-owned lot next to the Home2 Suites to the Bhaktas and Hawkeye Hotels for $950,000.

The plan is to build a 109-room, extended-stay, limited service hotel, Jay Bhakta told the EDA, adding that they are considering the Fairfield Inn & Suites brand.

“This is an exciting development for us,” Bhakta said. “Our family has deep roots in Eagan. We owned and operated the Terrace Motel, which is now the Budget Host Inn off of Highway 55. So these Eagan projects are particularly exciting for us.”

VIKINGS WILD CARD

In a followup interview, Bhakta said they were attracted to the two sites because of their proximity to the outlet mall and other new retail, the airport and the Mall of America. He also noted the presence of Thomson Reuters, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Prime Therapeutics and — soon — the Vikings.

“The Vikings development will also be a catalyst for other development,” he said. “So I think it makes a lot of sense to get a lot of new product in the area.”

That “new product” will also include a 127-room Residence Inn by Marriott near Yankee Doodle Road, as well as a 86-room Comfort Inn & Suites at Interstate 494 and Pilot Knob Road.

Cory, of the convention and visitors bureau, said he does get asked from time to time when it will be too much for the market. He said the current occupancy rate indicates the new rooms are needed, and the market will dictate what comes next.

“Our job will be to monitor the visitor numbers and certainly make sure our hotels, restaurants and retail options are adequately keeping pace,” he said. “Honestly, we just don’t know what we’re going to be dealing with.”

The wild card will be the Vikings’ first training camp, he said.

“I think we’ll need at least one year of training camp to get a real good gauge of how many fans are coming in,” he said. “We’ll get a much better lay of the land once that’s been completed.”

Cory and his staff are working with the Vikings on a study of the feasibility of a hotel and conference center.

“That’s a whole different animal,” he said. “That’s attracting conventions, and really other than Mystic Lake, we don’t have a major convention center south of the river.

“So that’s a pretty lofty ambition, which excites us. How great would that be for the east side, too, to land an amenity such as that?”

Source:  TwinCities.com