Radisson Mpls. Sold for $28.9M, Will Become Radisson Blu

A Radisson Blu hotel—the second in Minnesota—is coming to downtown Minneapolis.
 
A California investment firm just purchased the Radisson Plaza Hotel Minneapolis, which will be converted to the new brand, for $28.9 million in a deal that closed Tuesday.
 
The buyer is San Francisco-based Chartres Lodging Group, LLC. It signed a long-term contract with Minnetonka-based Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, which owns the Radisson Blu brand, to manage the hotel.
 
Renovations to the hotel will begin later this year and will be completed in 2014.
 
Preliminary plans for the hotel involve upgrades to the common areas and 360 guest rooms and suites, additional conference space, and updates to onsite restaurant FireLake Grill House and Cocktail Bar.
 
Chartres bills itself as “a unique hotel investment and hospitality asset management company,” and it currently maintains a $4 billion, 12,000-room portfolio of luxury and upscale hotels, resorts, and conference centers.  On its website, the firm said it focuses on acquiring under-performing facilities and selling them to institutional investors after turning them around through renovations and other types of repositioning.
 
The Radisson Plaza Hotel Minneapolis occupies the first 17 floors of the 36-story Plaza Seven building at 35 South Seventh Street between Nicollet Mall and Hennepin Avenue. In February, Minnetonka-based Carlson Real Estate Company sold the office tower and parking garage components of the property to a partnership between San Francisco-based City Center Realty Partners, LLC, and New York-based Angelo, Gordon & Company.
 
“The rebranding of the hotel marks the fifth Radisson Blu property in the Americas as part of our Ambition 2015 growth strategy,” Bob Kleinschmidt, chief development officer for Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, said in a statement. “The brand has gained significant momentum in the U.S., and we are thrilled to see the continued expansion, especially in the asset where Radisson was born in 1960.”
 
There are now 272 Radisson Blu hotels in operation across the world and another 86 under development. Carlson Rezidor said the upscale brand’s flagship properties are “in prime locations and in major cities, airport gateways, and leisure destinations.”
 
The first Minnesota location, the Radisson Blu Mall of America, opened in Bloomington last month.
 
Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group’s portfolio includes more than 1,300 hotels in operation and under development. Its global footprint spans 100 countries and territories, and its brands include Radisson Blu, Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn By Radisson, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, and Hotel Missoni.