According to an article over at Thisweek, a market study conducted by Hospitality Marketers International concluded that Rosemount needs a hotel to support the various types of businesses in and around the city.
From the article:
Among the reasons for the site preference was its proximity to local businesses travelers would want to visit such as restaurants and stores such Walgreens and the Holiday gas station and convenience store.
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Visitors who may want to stay in Rosemount include Flint Hills business people visiting the refinery, families of students at Dakota County Technical College, people visiting for family reunions and teams in town for tournaments.
Up until just a few years ago when the GrandStay hotel was erected in the Founders Circle area of Apple Valley there was only one hotel nearby and that sat at the corner of Cedar/CR-42. While decisions made by commercial entities are their own and are certainly part of the business world, in this case the City of Rosemount may be using taxpayer dollars to, “seek investors and developers to see if there is interest in the site.” With little growth seen in the area and very little expected in the next few years due to the economy, a valid concern would be that the hotel would be built, be underutilized, and may even fail and the city would not regain its original investment in the property.
What do you think about the prospects of building a hotel in Rosemount to support a technical college (which has very few–if any–students from outside the area and such examples as family reunions? Do you think that this is a wise investment for the City of Rosemount to make or should it be left solely up to interested commercial entities instead? Thoughts?
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November 18th, 2010 at 11:15 am
When Farmington had big dreams for its new “Downtown” a few years ago, there was talk of a hotel there, and if I remember right, the big discussion was about whether there’d be a pool or not, or some sort of waterpark, etc. At the time the hope was that ISD192 was going to build the Taj Mahal of athletic facilities and host huge swimming meets, thus the need for the hotel.
Business travelers want to visit Walgreen’s & Holiday? Huh. If a private developer does his homework and concludes the area can support a hotel, go for it. Otherwise, the City of Rosemount should leave well enough alone. Haven’t these suburban governments figures it out by now? Stop throwing money away trying to redevelop.
November 18th, 2010 at 11:19 am
If there is a hotel shopping for a location, i.e. they are gonna build one, then I’d say sure, Rosemount do what they can to entice them to build in their town. If this is to turn into the city throwing up a white flag, giving away the store to convince a hotel they need to build one, then I’d say knock it off.
Do we really need more service industry jobs in the area? If you’re gonna bend over for a company, how about a light or heavy manufacturer? Give an existing company an incentive to expand?
November 18th, 2010 at 11:28 am
When I travel plan, the first thing I do is make sure there is a Holiday or Walgreens nearby…seriously?
That may be the dumbest thing I have ever read. If someone is “traveling” to Rosemount, they probably have a car to get them to the Holiday wherever it is. That was a good laugh.
If someone can put together a business plan that shows a hotel making a profit, let them do it, but don’t write free money from the government into the plan.
November 18th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Totally agree with the first 3 comments. Let private industry decide if it’s profitable.
At some point in the future once UMore is built and 20,000 more residents occupy Rosemount there will certainly be the need but it seems like right now there are plenty of places nearby in Eagan and Apple Valley – some very near a Walgreens or Convenience Store.
November 18th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Hotel, not yet. Flint Hills is 10 minutes from 3&42. There are hotels in Inver Grove withing 10 minute and more in Eagan 15 minutes away. These options are also closer to the airport.
November 18th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
Rosemount just doesn’t seem like an area where a hotel would do well right now. As others have noted, there just doesn’t seem to be enough demand and there are already plenty of hotels within a short drive. Someday, maybe (though I doubt it personally), but not at the moment.
November 18th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Bill, the UMore build out won’t begin until the aggregate mining is complete–some 40 years from now.
November 18th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Complete Umore build out won’t be until then, but early construction isn’t unheard of. Look at Fisher and their gravel pit now on the south side of 42. It used to be on the north side. When they got done over there they developed the land.
The only point to keep in mind is that just because we don’t see a need for more hotels, doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Recently looking for a nice hotel room, on short notice, for a relative turned out to be much tougher than I certainly expected. I’m obviously out of the hotel loop.
November 18th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Bill, actually if you look at their website it says –
“The vision to build a unique, sustainable, University-founded community of 20,000 to 30,000 people, a 25- to 30-year endeavor, was affirmed by the University’s Board of Regents in December 2006.”
So the timing is shorter than you stated and the number of people is larger than I claimed. In theory, if the housing market recovers, you’d see parts of UMore building out within 5-10 years. Obviously, that would be sections away from the gravel pits.
That said, I still agree that a hotel isn’t needed for quite some time.
November 18th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Sorry I was going based on what I was told at the open house back in mid-2008: http://www.lazylightning.org/umns-public-forum-on-umore-development
“…they are planning on developing this land over the next 25 to 40 years…”
Also being that the entire plan is to include its own mixed use commercial/residential areas (see here: http://www.lazylightning.org/umore-2030-vision-what-do-you-notice for more), I have a feeling that there will be less need for a hotel at the corner of 3/42 to support those within the boundaries are UMore.
November 18th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
The funny thing is that the most economically viable spot for a Rosemount hotel might actually be at the corner of Highway 52 and County 42. You’d have a possible stopover spot along Highway 52 for truckers and the busy Mpls/Rochester stretch. It could be a place for people from SE Minnesota to stay on the way to an early airport departure and it’s close to DCTC and the future UMore area. At least this area would be miles from the closest alternative.
Not sure that’s where Rosemount government leaders have in mind. And this is still years off from viable I would think.
November 18th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
The article states that because it has no current services at that intersection the 42/3 intersection is better (thus the Holiday, etc).
November 18th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Tax dollars might be spent doing … what? Sending out information packets (“hey, build a hotel here!” to national hotel chains? If that’s all it is, I suppose that’s not the worst thing the city has done. It’s a waste of staff time and postage, since presumably Choice Hotels, the Holiday Inn people, whatever, have site-location staff to look into such things.
If the city plans something more ambitious, then we get into the realm of the folly of “leaders.”
September 28th, 2012 at 7:02 am
[...] in 2010 the City of Rosemount was “seeking investors and developers to see if there is interest in,”… to support the two businesses of note in the area. While most people realized at the time that [...]