2 Minneapolis projects featuring hotels to go before Planning Commission

A pair of mixed-use developments, each with a hotel, housing and space for restaurants and offices, are on track to be built on opposite sides of downtown Minneapolis.

The Minneapolis Planning Commission on Monday is scheduled to review the latest plans for a 60-room hotel with 48 apartments near the University of Minnesota, and a 100-room hotel with 20 for-sale condos that would replace a gas station near the tip of Bde Maka Ska (Lake Calhoun).

Both developers are requesting conditional use permits to build taller than what's currently allowed in those areas and a variety of variances, including higher density.

In both cases the city's Department of Community Planning and Economic Development is recommending approval.

Minneapolis-based North Bay Cos. wants to build the Halo Hotel and Apartments on a 2.18-acre site that's tucked into a mostly industrial area west of Interstate 35 and along the south edge of East Hennepin Avenue in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.

If approved, the project would mostly replace three industrial buildings and a parking lot. Revised plans filed with the city by DJR Architecture Inc. call for a five-story hotel that would replace two buildings; a third existing building would be converted into offices, amenity space for the hotel and a 7,000-square-foot restaurant and bar with a pizza oven.

The proposed five-story apartment building would have 12 studio units per floor on the second through fifth floors; the first floor would have common space and a 4,000 square-foot restaurant.

After feedback from the neighborhood group when the project was initially announced last year, the developer refined its plans to improve public access to site, including a new public sidewalk along SE. 9th Street and a second new midblock sidewalk that would connect SE. 8th and 9th streets.

DJR called it a lighted "serpentine pedestrian connection or muse," that will include a space to display public art. Garden areas with trees, shrubs and native flowers will be created on both ends of the SE. 8th Street frontage and designed in cooperation with the neighborhood organization.

In southwest Minneapolis, Blaine-based Elevage Group submitted revised plans to the city for the West Lake Street Hotel and Condos project at 3012 Excelsior Blvd.

It would replace a gas station on a triangular-shaped block that also houses a fire station at the well-traveled intersection of West Lake Street and Excelsior Boulevard between Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles.

The project would include a 10-story building for the hotel and condos with a lobby, amenity spaces and about 11,000 square feet of retail space with a proposed cafe and/or restaurant on the ground level.

In plans submitted to the city, Elevage said, "Adding hotel, residential and restaurant uses at this location naturally creates a more inviting streetscape, as more people will be walking and biking to and from the site, which creates an energetic, safe and people-friendly hub, improving the site's existing conditions … the design incorporates vegetation on the building facade and on its outdoor decks, bringing the park qualities this area is known for within the site."

The developer said the building, which was designed by ESG Architects, will be contemporary in style and constructed with post-tensioned concrete with exterior materials that include stone, brick, metal panel and glass. The upper floors would include recessed balconies.

Both developers are requesting conditional use permits to build taller than what's currently allowed in those areas and a variety of variances, including higher density.

Jim Buchta • 612-673-7376