Small hotel planned for downtown Mankato

Aug. 14—After years of talk about constructing a new hotel in Mankato's city center, the newest could already be standing.

The owner of Bridge Plaza, the 18-month-old five-story building between downtown and Old Town, has submitted plans to the city to make the vacant fourth floor a small hotel.

"It is a one-floor concept — 20 rooms — and an independent brand," said Cate DeBates, vice president of Coldwell Banker Commercial Fisher Group, who submitted the application for a city conditional use permit on behalf of the developers. "Construction is slated to start this fall. I've been asked not to share further details at this time as the group will be doing their own press release in the near future."

The Free Press was unsuccessful in reaching Mike Brennan of Brennan Construction, who spent a decade planning and lining up financing for the $16.2 million Bridge Plaza project. The property's Facebook page describes Bridge Plaza as an upscale mixed-use building with six luxury apartments on the fifth floor, class A office space on the lower floors and a combination of enclosed and surface parking.

A commercial listing for the site offers more than 9,000 square feet of first-floor space, mainly office suites along with a bistro suite. The entire fourth floor totaling nearly 10,000 square feet is available for lease, according to the listing.

The hotel project would make use of both floors, according to city documents.

"The proposal is to 'build out' part of the first and fourth floors," according to a project description by city staff. "The floor plan of the entry level depicts an empty lobby space with a restroom ... . The fourth floor plan depicts 20 units ranging in size from 300 square feet to 857 square feet."

The plan is for 16 king-bed rooms and four rooms with double queen beds. A pair of balconies may be added.

Community Development Director Paul Vogel, who declined to comment on the hotel proposal or whether the city center was in need of more hotel rooms, said the city typically requires a conditional use permit for hotel projects to ensure there is adequate parking and that state lodging licenses are in place.

Information submitted by DeBates suggested that parking won't be an issue because office workers will be leaving the property at the time hotel guests are arriving, and that peak occupancy in the hotel will generally be on weekends when the offices are mostly empty. She also emphasized the value of the hotel to the broader economy in a note to the Planning Commission, which is expected to review the plan as soon as Aug. 24.

"At full occupancy, we would have around 50 guests," DeBates wrote. "The hotel would create up to four total jobs in the city center. This new business would also support Mankato's regional need for hotel rooms for conventions, business travel and leisure/tourism."

Business leaders have long hoped for more downtown lodging, which would allow the civic center to compete for larger conventions. The only new hotel in the downtown area since the construction of the civic center in 1995 was the Hilton Garden Inn, which opened in 2007 — adding 118 rooms to the 151 existing rooms at the then-Holiday Inn, which is now the City Center Hotel.

Other proposals have come forward in recent years but stalled.

In January of 2019, the plan was for a hotel in the Landmark building, a century-old structure located at the corner of Main and Second streets, with 62 rooms above a restaurant and banquet rooms. It was to be an upscale boutique hotel with different designs for the rooms rather than cookie-cutter rooms of traditional chain hotels.

"I'm talking to a couple of hotel operators that are interested," Landmark owner Jon Kietzer told The Free Press then. "It's not a done deal, but I think it will happen."

In December of 2019, developer Gordon Awsumb was seeking final city approval for a $14.2 million SpringHill Suites by Marriott at the corner of Cherry and Front streets, with construction set for early to mid-spring of 2020.

At about the same time, Kietzer's plans were expanding. He submitted a proposal to the city that showed his 60-room boutique hotel in the Landmark building tied via a skyway to the City Center Hotel, which was to be thoroughly renovated and modernized.

The arrival of the pandemic and the resulting impact on travel and conventions scuttled both Kietzer and Awsumb's plans to move to construction in 2020 and again in 2021.

Kietzer shifted his vision for the Landmark building to upscale apartments above Mankato's first micro-distillery, although he said the skyway to the City Center Hotel and that hotel's renovation is still in the longer-range plans.

Despite the pandemic, one would-be developer of the historic Mankato post office told The Free Press in December of 2020 that his planned project included a new 100-room Hilton Home2 Suites extended-stay hotel on the back parking lot facing Broad Street. While specific plans haven't been made public about the redevelopment, a promotional video released a year ago indicated that a hotel was still part of the broader post office project.

The video and project Facebook page for "The Post at 401" spoke of transforming the post office building into "a high end restaurant, a speakeasy, rooftop courtyard, spa and salon, along with overnight accommodations for guests to stay within the hub of commerce and community activities." In the ensuing 51 weeks later, the page has provided no progress updates.

Awsumb, in speaking to the City Council about a planned apartment building next to Jackson Park, said he and his partners haven't completely abandoned plans for a hotel rising above the Cherry Street parking ramp.

"We've redesigned the hotel," Awsumb said. "I've got marching orders from the group to get this (apartment building) done first and then come back with the hotel and see if you still want to work on it."