A mixed-use hotel and condo building is proposed to replace a gas station at 3012 Excelsior Blvd. in Minneapolis. The project would back up to the city’s Fire Station 22. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)
An eight-story hotel and condominium building proposed near Bde Maka Ska (formerly known as Lake Calhoun) in Minneapolis has area residents concerned about the project’s height. But its proximity to a future light rail station and buildings of a similar height could trump those concerns.
The Blaine-based Elevage Development Group on Thursday will present plans for the mixed-use building to the Minneapolis Planning Commission Committee of the Whole. Elevage is proposing to demolish an existing gas station at 3012 Excelsior Blvd. to construct a triangular building with 100 hotel rooms, 20 condos and 4,700 square feet of commercial tenant space.
The building site is two blocks east of the West Lake Station on the future Southwest Light Rail Transit line. The project includes 107 underground and at-grade parking spaces, according to a city staff report.
Building amenities will include a restaurant on the first floor and a rooftop deck for hotel guests and residents. The project is on a triangular piece of property between Excelsior Boulevard and Lake Street and backs up to the Minneapolis Fire Department’s Station 22.
The project has received mixed reviews from the West Calhoun Neighborhood Council, said Allan Campbell, the council’s chairman. Elevage principal Corey Burstad has brought the project before the council twice, most recently on Tuesday.
The project’s height is an issue for neighborhood council members and for area residents, Campbell said. Buildings in the area are limited to 2.5 stories, or 35 feet. An exception is possible in this case, however: The project site is designated for transit-oriented development with building heights exceeding five stories, according to the staff report.
“The city has been approving condos and rental apartments along Lake Street up to eight stories,” Campbell said in an interview Thursday.
Although some on the neighborhood council’s board find the height controversial because of how it might interfere with views of the lake, they favor demolishing the gas station.
“I think a lot of the board members would be happy to see something other than a gas station at that corner,” Campbell said.
The new condos would also likely be welcome in the neighborhood. New for-sale housing has been relatively rare as developers have concentrated on building apartments in the West Calhoun area, Campbell said.
The neighborhood council has not written a letter of support for the project.
Burstad did not immediately respond to requests to comment on the project.
The hotel rooms will come into a busy market. Graves Hospitality opened the 125-room Moxy Minneapolis Uptown at 1121 W. Lake St. in January. That hotel is in the neighboring Uptown neighborhood, and is about a mile west of Elevage’s project site.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul hotel market saw a slightly higher occupancy rate through February compared with recent years, according to Tennessee-based STR, which tracks the hotel market. The rate was 59.8 percent for the period. That is up from 54.8 percent for the same period in 2017 and is the highest rate during the past seven years.
Included in the higher occupancy rate for the first two months of this year was about a week of high hotel occupancy related to the Feb. 4 Super Bowl at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
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