The Ramada Downtown Minneapolis is closing after 46 years in business and will be demolished early next year to make way for a yet-to-be-decided new development.
Bob Lux, a partner in Alatus Management, said Monday that his firm still is exploring options for redeveloping the hotel site at 10th Street and Hawthorne Avenue as well as another site across Hawthorne that contains a parking lot.
He said he hopes to have a plan in place sometime next year for redeveloping both properties.
Lux bought the 196-room hotel in October 2005 for $5 million, according to Hennepin County property records. "It's been a decent operation, but the building is truly at the end of its useful life," he said.
Lux declined to say exactly when the hotel would close except that it would be before the end of the year. A clerk reached by phone Monday said it was closing Wednesday.
Lux said the hotel closing won't affect the site with the parking lot, which Alatus purchased earlier this year. The lot will continue to operate until a redevelopment plan is formulated, he said.
Lux has been a principal in two major downtown condominium developments, Grant Park and Carlyle.
In November, his firm bought five downtown parking ramps from Minneapolis for $65 million: Centre Village, Seven Corners, Loring, Gateway and Downtown East. Alatus has an option to sell the Downtown East ramp, near the Metrodome, to the Minnesota Vikings or the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. Lux also is working on a Seven Corners-neighborhood housing development near the University of Minnesota's West Bank.
