Type: Hotel
Rooms: 232 (after renovation)
Size: 195,280 square feet
Owner: Chelsea Hospitality Partners
Architect: Delawie Architecture
Details: The new owners and management team of the Embassy Suites Hotel in Bloomington have unveiled their plans for interior and exterior upgrades to the 35-year-old facility.
The 218-room hotel was purchased by an entity associated with San Diego-based Chelsea Hospitality Partners in April for $24 million, and then it was announced that Aimbridge Hospitality of Dallas would take over management of the facility with a plan for a complete renovation of its rooms and public areas to meet the standards of the Embassy Suites flag.
Details of the upgrades were released when the owners received Bloomington city approvals for modernization effort. They include the addition of 14 guest rooms, to be accomplished by converting several "double-bay" meeting suites into single rooms, the removal of some exterior structures and the re-striping of the parking lot to create 15 additional spaces.
Another major interior change will be the addition of a new guest breakfast buffet as well as a relocation and size reduction of the hotel's bar/restaurant. Meanwhile, dated design elements such as a fountain, planters, canopies and tile finishes will be eliminated from its atrium.
On the outside, the color of the wall coatings will be changed and the building's tile Âmansard roofline will be replaced with stucco-finished fascia. Decorative window railings will be eliminated and new windows will be installed for the newly-created guest rooms.
Don Jacobson is a freelance writer in St. Paul. He can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.
