Kiger's Notebook

More on DoubleTree switch

After many months of work at a cost of more than $10 million, the hotel looming over Broadway in downtown Rochester is now a DoubleTree.

Previously a Radisson Hotel, it is still owned by Rochester’s Chafoulias family.

Since DoubleTree is a Hilton brand, this switch gives the Chafouliases two Hilton hotels – Hilton Garden Inn and DoubleTree – in downtown.

Michael Smith, the director of operations for Chafoulias’ hotel management company called Titan Hospitality, says that means the sister hotels can work together more smoothly and better serve guests.

He stresses that the change is much more than a new name or even the addition of DoubleTree’s famous chocolate chip and walnut cookies given to guests at check-in.

“What we’re trying to do is to create a more metropolitan feel to the hotel,” he says. “That helps us stay up-to-date with the downtown, which I think is really ramping up.”

But is a $10 million upgrade during slow economic times worth it?

“Customers want fresh facilities. This is the cost of doing business,” Smith said.

Part of the hotel’s “ramping up” has been the addition of Pescara, a new restaurant off the lobby owned and run by the culinary minds behind the successful Chester’s Kitchen and Bar across Broadway and as well as the opening of BluH20 Salon and Spa on the skyway level by Starbucks Coffee.

The salon, in particular, is “huge” for wedding parties, he said.

“Not too long ago, a bridal party went out of the hotel to have their hair done and it rained on their way back,” says Sam Anderson, special hotel consultant for the Chafoulias family. “It was a disaster.”

The immediate change that anyone familiar with the 21-year-old hotel will notice is the dramatic transformation of the lobby.

Gone is the dark wood, lush furnishings and sedate atmosphere with the check-in desk as the main focus.

Now a bright, open space in the lobby is dominated by a wall-sized electronic artwork that constantly changes. Guests can interact with it. It is also linked to the hotel entrance, which creates musical sounds based on the movement of people through the door.

Another artwork features metal pipes with electronic lighting on top. A glass entryway leads into the Pescara restaurant.

While many of the changes were to bring the hotel in line with the DoubleTree format, the lobby alteration was the decision of the local management.

“The lobby was simply a design we chose. We chose a more modern, progressive look over the classic style we formerly had,” says Smith.

However nice a lobby looks or however good a connected restaurant or salon is, the real point for guests is the room.

“They are very well appointed. They each have a microwave, refrigerator, special Wolfgang Puck coffee as well as many other amenities,” says Smith.

At this point, eight of the 13 floors of rooms have been revamped to the new look. Smith expects the changeover of all 212 rooms to be complete by 2010.

Attracting travelers

A DoubleTree grows in Rochester

It looks like it is official.

The downtown Rochester Radisson Hotel is dead. Long live the DoubleTree Hotel. 

I saw Schad Tracy Sign handling the nameplate switch Tuesday (I think...maybe it was Monday, whatever).

Anyway, the changeover seems to be mostly complete now. At least enough that Doubletree OKed the signage to go up.

This project was launched by Rochester developer Gus Chafoulias and his hotel specialist Kevin Molloy in May 2008, after being rumored for months before that.

Now the new GM Michael Smith and Andy Chafoulias, another Rochester developer who happens to be Gus' son, are seeing the project through to the end.

A sequel to Furlow Apartments might be on way

Plans are in the works to build a sister for the 83-year-old Furlow Apartments in southwest Rochester.

A partnership involving local commercial Realtors Mac Hamilton and Jamey Shandley is going to the Rochester Planning and Zoning Commission to get the OK to build a new 19,428-square-foot, 24-apartment complex next to the original Furlough at 512 Fourth St. S.W.

The key is a request to build underground parking with the new complex.

“If we can get that, we think we’d like to go ahead and build it,” Hamilton says. “We’d hope to start this fall and have the units be occupiable in the spring.”

A house even older than the apartment complex would be demolished to make room, if it is approved.

Another part of this project is building something that fits with the classic style of the Furlow.

“It (the Furlow) has a lot of character. The neighborhood is one of character. We think we need to bring a good-looking project, if we are going to ask people to support it,” Hamilton says.

That means a much more costly project. However, he believes that the additional cost will pay off in the long-term with the University of Minnesota Rochester driving up demand for housing.

Kahler owner forfeiting fancy San Fran hotel

You have to wonder what this means for the Kahler Grand, Kahler Inn and Suites and the Marriott hotel - all owned by Sunstone Properties - in downtown Rochester.

It sounds like things are getting very tough for the REIT - real estate investment trust.

This is from the Wall Street Journal:

Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. intends to forfeit the 258-room W San Diego to its lenders after its efforts to reach a compromise on the luxury hotel's $65 million securitized mortgage failed.

Sunstone, a real-estate investment trust that owns 43 hotels, bought the W for $96 million in 2006 from a group led by developer Gatehouse Capital Corp. Since then, the slumping performance of the W San Diego and the broader hotel market has made supporting that mortgage a challenge for Sunstone.

The special servicer "declined our proposed modifications (to the loan), and we didn't make the June 1 payment and we don't intend to," Sunstone President and Chief Executive Officer Arthur Buser said in an interview Sunday. "We're prepared to convey the property to the lender in lieu of repayment."

Sunstone, based in San Clemente, Calif., estimates the W San Diego is worth much less than the $65 million balance on its mortgage. At the end of last year, the hotel posted an occupancy of 69% and generated revenue per available room of nearly $153.

The Associated Press is reporting the REIT's overall per room revenue is down to $97.53 for the year to date so far. That revenue, AP says, fell 24.5 percent in May.

Downtown Roch. tidbit #1

Well, Alan was half right.

One of the downtown Rochester changes I was teasing is about the Civic Inn.

At the end of this month, all of the tenants of the 79-year-old Civic Inn in downtown Rochester will need to find a new place to live.

Rex Savage, the owner of the apartment building that caters to low-income tenants, says a deal is in the works to sell the Civic Inn.

If the sale does not go through, will the business stay open?

“No, it is closing no matter what. If it doesn’t sell, I’m boarding it up,” Savage says. “Regardless, I just have decided to quit. I am retiring.”

He notified the 27 tenants on March 30 that they have to be out by July 1.

Since he has worked with the city of Rochester and Olmsted County in the past, is it possible the buyer is one of those entities?

Savage says no.

 It is a private buyer who could use the property for a variety of businesses.

Changes at Roch.'s Civic Inn?

OK, the buzz is that a major might be cooking for Rex Savage's Civic Inn on Center Street.

This is not confirmed yet, so it might be a false alarm, but I'm checking out.

You have to love a covering a business that you can take a picture of without leaving your office. It is a lazy journalist's dream.

New Roch. hotel to slash ribbon

Remember Value Place Suites?

It is the 4-story, long-term stay hotel with 124 rooms that recently was built by the old Mill's Fleet Farm store along south U.S. 63.

It has announced a ribbon cutting slated  from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on June 4.

AmericInn may return to Roch.

A Minnesota hotel brand hopes to check back into Rochester after being away for about two years.

“It was obvious to me that Rochester was a place where there needs to be an AmericInn”, says Twin Cities-based hotel developer David Harchanko. “As soon as that became available, I made sure we had our money on the table and we got a hold of the franchise.”

In 2007, the hotel at 5708 Bandel Road N.W. changed to Comfort Inn and Suites from AmericInn.

And yet Rochester is still popular with AmericInn customers, he says. The company told Harchanko that Rochester is the top destination that its reservation line fields requests for that they cannot fill.

So he has the franchise and sees the need, what’s the hold up on building a new hotel? Financing.

“Banks are a little constricted now, he says. However, a Rochester bank did recently start talking with Harnchanko’s group, Category 5 Development, which has six AmericInn Hotels in Illinois and Iowa.

He estimates the financial ballpark tally for the proposed four-floor hotel with a total of  87 rooms at about $10 million.

As for where such a hotel would be built, Category 5 does have an undisclosed location targeted, but no land buy will be made until the financing is locked down. 

No bluffing - River Bluff Co-Op looming

There's no denying it.

River Bluff Co-Op is one honking big pile of wood. clinging to the side of a hill overlooking the Zumbro River by Third Avenue and Elton Hills Drive in northwest Rochester.

I seem to stop and stare at it every time I roll by that way. It is massive.

It is a 50 unit senior housing complex with three levels. It is open to people 55 and older. It is a non-profit deal. Residents buys shares in the cooperative.

Roch. hotel + new retail shop

A Rochester hotel is about ready to launch a new life of housing a retail tenant.

That means a shop is will soon open in a hotel space, a space that I believe has never been used for leased tenants. Not certain about that part.

Anyway, I should have more on this soon, certainly by my Thursday print column at least.