Hotel sits at business gateway

With the opening of a five-story Sheraton hotel and conference center along its marketable freeway corridor, Woodbury has ramped up its business presence in the east metro.

The 150-room Sheraton St. Paul Woodbury Hotel fits into Woodbury's strategy to create notable business gateways into the city and also addresses the city's need for more corporate meeting space.

"We've always envisioned a nice hotel in that area," said Janelle Schmitz, the city's planning and economic development manager. "It has the type of look we were going for with its intensity and size. It gives that area a nice anchor."

The hotel, which opened July 31, was built near the new Tamarack Road interchange on I-494. It is close to major Washington and Ramsey county employers such as 3M, Woodwinds Hospital, Hartford Life, Assurant and Imation.

"We're primarily a hotel for the business professional," said General Manager Patrick Short. The hotel also expects to attract leisure customers planning to attend events in St. Paul on weekends, he said.

St. Paul was mentioned in the hotel's name for online marketing purposes to better help prospective customers find a full-service hotel near the larger city, Short said.

The Sheraton is the latest of several metro-area hotels recently opened or under construction by parent company Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. Construction of the 82,200-square-foot Woodbury hotel began in July 2007. Schmitz said city officials started talking in 1998 about their desire to attract a hotel to that area.

Woodbury, which is Washington County's largest city, also qualifies as the county's economic engine because of its brisk retail base. The Sheraton sits in the Tamarack Hills development, which city officials value as a strategic stretch of land to build commerce.

"It certainly has great access and convenience to the freeway and the airport," Schmitz said.

The Woodbury hotel is expected to accommodate business travelers who previously used hotels in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Bloomington strip, said Hoyt Harper, Sheraton's senior vice president.

Short said the Sheraton will become a focal point in Woodbury. While the hotel has sold rooms for the Republican National Convention, he said, the July opening wasn't scheduled only to capture that business.

"It will be a nice starting point for us but we're being built for the long haul," he said.