Text size: 
Here a morsel from the Olmsted Property Information and GIS database:
On Oct. 9, 2009, the 1928, two story apartment house at 730 Fifth St. S.W. in Rochester sold for $775,000.
A company by the name of Pill Hill Apartments LLC sold it to Pill Hill LLC.
Pill Hill Apartments LLC bought in 2005 for $650,000.
I may have more detail on this later.
Here's some from a piece I have in today's edition about a $750,000 upgrade/ renovation at the Fiksdal Hotel, built in 1966, across Second Street Southwest from St. Marys Hospital.
-----------------------
When it was built in 1966, the Fiksdal Hotel cost $1 million.
Now 43 years later, its owners are spending almost as much — about $750,000 — for an extensive remodel and upgrade of the interior of the 53-room hotel across from Saint Marys Hospital on Second Street Southwest.
“Sometimes when you have an old look on the exterior, people think it is like that inside,” said Blake Hoffman, a co-owner of Blue Mountain Development. “People like an ‘old home feel,’ but they don’t to go back to 1960s. They want modern amenities.”
Hoffman’s group recently recommended to the owners of the Fiksdal, Blue Stem Capital of Sioux Fall, S.D., and Glen Fiksdal of Rochester, that they re-invest “a pretty good chunk of capital into it.”
Blue Stem also owns the Staybridge Suites hotel next door to the Fiksdal.
When the green light for the renovation was given, work began with upgrading the hotel’s heating-and-cooling system and roof as well as removing the dark tint film on the windows.
“The film was all bubbly,” said Charmayne Cochran, the general manager and director of sales for the Fiksdal as well as the Staybridge Suites.
As workers on scaffolding tackled that project outside, work started inside in early October. Starting with the sixth floor, each level is shut down for a week as about 20 workers swarm through the halls and rooms painting, replacing carpet and updating the decor to current standards.
The lobby is also getting a facelift, and the hotel’s computer system is being upgraded from an antiquated DOS-based system.
Cochran and Hoffman point out that local contractors were hired and the financing was handled by a Rochester bank, Home Federal Bank.
While the inside of the hotel is moving forward in time, the exterior remains as a memorial to 1960s-style with the stylized logo and large turquoise blue panels.
Why not update the outside also?
“It’s still in good shape. I don’t know what they used, but the colors haven’t faded,” said Hoffman. “It gives the hotel some of its historic appeal. The look is pretty much its brand.”
Here's a quick snippet from Dow Jones about the Sunstone Hotel Investors, which controls four hotels in Rochester.
Actually, Sunstone has Kahler Grand Hotel, Kahler Inn & Suites, Marriott at Mayo Clinic, Residence Inn by Marriott. It also has the hotel-within-a-hotel, The International Hotel, here.
Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. announced plans to sell at least 14 million shares, with the money going to build its stake in its operating partnership.
Sunstone has about 61 million shares outstanding, and the stock was recently down 4.8% in after-hours trading at $7.40. The news comes a day after the real-estate investment trust projected another quarter of weak results as the hotel industry continues to be hurt by falling occupancy levels and prices.
Sunstone has interest in 40 hotels, and last month agreed to return a second hotel to lenders after deciding against trying to keep up with the property's mortgage. Other hoteliers have taken the same step.
If you haven't noticed the new name or the remodeling work, Hardwick Apartments at 1804 Second St. S.W. in Rochester is now Colby Manor and the new owner is remodeling all 32 units with new kitchens and many other amenities.
Realty Growth Inc. of Rochester is managing the complex for owner Colby Apartments LLC. Dan Westendorf is directly managing the property.
I should have more on this in print soon.
Brett Wood, general manager of the hotel, says the name Macho Nacho Blues Bar and Grill was officially dropped this week in favor of a new moniker, Ron’s Place at La Quinta.
“This just seemed to hit us as good, clean and crisp, to fit with the image,” he says. “Ron’s Place fits better with the blues atmosphere.”
Ron is the owner, Ron Cary.
Another tweak is a changeover of the menu, Wood says.
“It will be more Minnesota food with a little bit of zip and a little bit of flair,” he said.
One thing that remains the same is the focus on live music. Blues will still boom out from the stage on Friday nights, Wood says. While lots of attention has been lavished on the recently revamped and rebranded Doubletree Hotel in downtown Rochester, its sister property a block south has quietly received its own makeover.
The Hilton Garden Inn at 225 South Broadway is being spruced up “from the lobby up to the seventh floor,” says General Manager Kurt Jorgensen.
In fact, the 143-room Hilton even has permit applications submitted to the city to add a bar. But don’t expect Hilton guests to be having cocktails in the proposed lounge soon.
“We are strongly focusing on getting the rooms all finished up first,” he says.
Once other parts of the hotel, built in 1999, are freshened up, it will be time to start work on the bar. Jorgensen does not expect to open the guest-focused lounge until 2010.
Traficant was convicted of racketeering, bribery and tax evasion and received an eight-year sentence July 30, 2002. He has been in custody since then. The House of Representatives expelled him.
He had a reputation on Capitol Hill for his wild hair, bellbottom pants and one-minute floor speeches punctuated with the Star Trek comment, "Beam me up."
One of the largest Rochester real estate deals so far this year — a $14.1 million sale — was for a new hotel earlier this month.
Apple Nine Hospitality, an offshoot of Richmond, Va.-based Apple REIT Cos., bought the just-completed Hampton Inn and Suites at 2870 59th St. N.W., along Bandel Road, before the first customer ever checked in.
Viking Fund Rochester, which built the 124-unit hotel, sold it.
The transaction towered over other recent Rochester deals with two sales barely topping $1 million in July and one seven-figure June deal hitting $2.2 million.A boost in tourism jobs breathed life into southeastern Minnesota's labor market in July, with employment rising by 200 since June in Mower County alone, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Mower County's jobless rate was 6.2 percent in June, down from 6.8 percent in June but still higher than last year's 4.6 percent. The number of jobless people totaled 1,325, down from 1,445 in June.
The jobless rate in the 11-county region was 7.2 percent in July, down from 7.8 percent in June, but up from 5 percent a year ago. It remains lower than the state rate of 7.8 percent and the national rate of 9.7 percent.
The job market was slowly improving in spring but suddenly worsened in June, so observers were watching July closely to see if the recovery resumed, said Jennifer Ridgeway, DEED labor market analyst.
---------
A particularly bright spot was the leisure and hospitality sector, she said. After steady job losses for 18 months, the sector gained jobs in June and July compared to the previous year, Ridgeway said. In July, it accounted for 9,508 jobs in the Rochester metropolitan area (Olmsted, Wabasha and Dodge counties), up 2.4 percent from a year ago, even as most sectors stayed steady or declined slightly.
---------
Ian Freeburg, president of the Rochester Lodging Association and general manager of the SpringHill Suites Hotel, said business at his hotel has picked up in recent months and his hotel has hired a few extra people.
The Jehovah's Witnesses convention, as well as other conventions brought in by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, provided a healthy boost this summer, Freeburg said.
-------
However, retail trade jobs were down 1.4 percent over the year in the Rochester metro area, so consumer spending is still slow.
Education and health jobs, a powerhouse in Rochester because of Mayo Clinic, continued to gain. The sector accounted for 43,072 jobs, up 1.9 percent from a year ago, in the Rochester metro area.
Rochester once again tops a “Best Places” list, though this one is different since its looks at U.S. cities through the eyes of a child.
U.S. News and World Reports magazine, a long-time fan of Rochester, named the city as one of America’s 10 Best Places To Grow Up in a list published Thursday.
Described on the list as having “… Enough activities to tire out even the most energetic youngsters,” Rochester is ranked among other cities such as Boston, Denver, San Jose, Calif., and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The magazine delved into its database of 2,000 communities to look for place with a low crime rate, a strong school system, lots of green spaces and plenty of opportunities for recreation and artistic outlets.
When mapping out Rochester’s child-friendly features, the magazine spoke with Brad Jones, the executive director of the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau.
He described the variety of activity options, like “85 miles of trails for in-line skating, 3,200 acres of public parks for touch football, and 56 different playgrounds.”
The list also included the Graham Arena hockey facilities and National Volleyball Center.
U.S. News and World Reports has often named Rochester to its many lists, starting with the Best Places to Live. It also has made the Best Places to Work and Best Places to Do Business lists.
Recent Comments