Hotel empire grows in Maple Grove

A Willmar-based hotel developer is building two hotels in Maple Grove -- his third and fourth their -- and intends to redefine the northwestern Twin Cities suburb as a destination for families and business travelers.

Tom Torgerson, owner of Torgerson Properties Inc., said this week he's inked a deal with Opus Northwest to develop a 115-room high-end Courtyard by Marriott hotel in the Fountains of Arbor Lakes. Last year, he announced plans for a 136-room Holiday Inn with a water park on an adjacent site, also in the Fountains project.

Torgerson planted his stake in Arbor Lakes so he could capitalize on the building boom there. In the past five years, almost 2 million square feet of retail space has been built nearby. Within a few blocks of the new hotels, there are at least a dozen restaurants, a movie theater and a soon-to-open Dave and Buster's restaurant, bar and entertainment center.

Businesses travelers are generated by fast-growing companies such as Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Upsher-Smith and ev3.

'Not your daddy's Courtyard'

Even though Torgerson's newest hotels are next to each other, they are designed to complement, not compete, with one another.

The Courtyard by Marriott, which will open in early 2008, is designed for business travelers. It will cost about $150,000 per room to develop, about 50 percent more than typical suburban Courtyards, Torgerson said. That translates into about $150-per-night room rates.

The project includes most features of a full-service Marriott, except for fewer rooms and less meeting space. It will include a full-service restaurant and bar and provide room service.

All rooms will have LCD TVs and electronic boxes that allow travelers to hook their computers and iPods into the TV system.

"It is not your daddy's Courtyard," Torgerson said.

Washington, D.C. based Marriott International Inc., which owns the Courtyard brand, gave Torgerson its franchise with the understanding that this is a custom project and may be used as a guinea pig for future developments, he said.

The Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites, which will be geared to leisure travelers, is under construction and should open in early 2007. It has a 25,000-square-foot, Venetian-themed indoor waterpark, a restaurant, bar and conference center.

The Holiday Inn will cost about $165,000 per room to develop, and run about $165 nightly for a room, Torgerson said. "These two hotels will reinvent the top of the market in Maple Grove," Torgerson said.

He should know, said Stephen Sherf, a hotel market analyst at GVA Marquette Advisors in Minneapolis.

Hotels in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park used to fulfill demand in the north metro, but people are going out to Maple Grove for a variety of reasons, including the nice array of restaurants, he said.
New CVB in the works

Maple Grove is such a draw for travelers that Torgerson is laying the groundwork to establish a Maple Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau "so we can market the Arbor Lakes district and Maple Grove as a destination."

The CVB, which would take about a year and a half to get off the ground, would require city approval.

It also involves breaking from Visit Minneapolis North, a Brooklyn Center-based CVB that promotes tourism and conventions in 11 north-metro cities, including Maple Grove. Lodging taxes in those cities fund the agency.

Bob Musil, executive director of Visit Minneapolis North, was unaware of Torgerson's desire to start a CVB and thinks it's a bad idea.

There already are too many CVBs in the Twin Cities, which causes suburbs to compete against each other for the same travelers instead of marketing the entire region, Musil said.

Maple Grove is important to the organization. The city contributed about $290,000 to Visit Minneapolis North's $1.5 million budget in 2005.

Musil said he'll try to meet with Torgerson to discuss ways the group can address any of his concerns. "We know that Arbor Lakes is a significant generator of room nights to our area, and we know they will continue to be. ... We're looking at adjusting our marketing mixture so we can serve the needs of all our constituents."

Source: http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2006/05/01/story3.html?b=
1146456000^1279750&surround=etf