For St. Paul, 'destination' restaurants, hotel updates in owner Ojibwe's plans
A new steakhouse or similar "destination restaurant" could be on tap for downtown St. Paul's largest hotel, but the "Crowne Plaza" name soon may be a goner.
The new owners -- the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe -- of two of the largest downtown hotels plan to renovate rooms, improve street entrances and add destination eateries to the Crowne Plaza on Kellogg Boulevard and the DoubleTree by Hilton on Minnesota Street.
The band closed on the two hotels Thursday, March 7, and has hired Graves Hospitality Corp. to manage both sites, which combined have more than 720 guest rooms. Trinity Hotels of New York had placed both properties on the market.
"We intend to be good businesspeople, good neighbors and good citizens," said Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band. "We do not want to change St. Paul."
The band, which runs Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley about 80 to 90 miles north of the Twin Cities, said they have no plans to bring casinos to downtown St. Paul. Gaming is not allowed under state law outside of American Indian reservations and official tribal trust land.
Flanked by officials from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's office and the Visit St. Paul Convention and Visitors bureau, Benjamin and other members of the Mille Lacs Band shared their vision for the two hotels during a presentation on Monday in a Crowne Plaza banquet room.
A "thrilled" Coleman said he is looking forward to working with the Mille Lacs Band and Graves Hospitality.
"The band is looking for new, unique investment opportunities throughout the country, and they chose to invest in St. Paul first," the mayor said in a statement.
Joseph Nayquonabe Jr., commissioner of corporate affairs for the Mille Lacs Band, said improvements to the DoubleTree by Hilton would be the first order of business. The hotel will get a new street entrance on Minnesota Street and a restaurant could soon follow. The existing hotel entrance is inside the hotel parking ramp, complicating public access, he said.
"We're looking to have destination dining," said Graves Hospitality Corp. President Ben Graves.
Nayquonabe said the band will spend the next 12 to 24 months examining the types of improvements necessary at the Crowne Plaza, including whether to rebrand the hotel or keep its name. The 470-room hotel also would get its own destination restaurant, possibly a steakhouse, Nayquonabe said.
"We plan on really transforming this property," Nayquonabe said. No price on the purchases was given.
Nayquonabe said some changes will be felt virtually overnight, while others would roll out over the next two years. Both properties have Property Improvement Plans, or PIPs, issued by each franchise.
Graves Hospitality has made a name for itself with upscale restaurants and cocktail bars in Minneapolis, including the 4-year-old Bradstreet Craftshouse Restaurant and the older Cosmos Restaurant inside the Graves 601 Hotel, which opened in 2003.
The company took over the Solera Restaurant and Event Center on Hennepin Avenue less than three years ago. Its out-of-state holdings include the popular restaurants the Bedford and Carriage House, both in Chicago's Wicker Park.
The Mille Lacs Band is diversifying its business portfolio beyond casinos, and the tribe continues to look at hotels and other properties across the country, from the Mall of America in Bloomington to New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Benjamin said. St. Paul, however, felt promising and familiar, Nayquonabe said.
Officials in the hospitality industry said the tribe's announcements represented the biggest change to the downtown hotel scene since the construction of the Double Tree in the late 1980s. Karolyn Kirchgesler, president and CEO of Visit St. Paul, said the Crowne Plaza is the primary hotel partner for conventions at the St. Paul RiverCentre, which Visit St. Paul markets and oversees.
"It's a huge deal for us," Kirchgesler said. "This is our main property."
Reported by: TwinCities.com
