City Sends Hotel to Planning Stage

Hampton Inn and Suites in Minnetonka is one more step closer to reality.

Cities Edge Architects is proposing construction of a five-story, 100-room Hampton Inn and Suites hotel at 10600 Wayzata Boulevard, the former Cattle Company restaurant site.

The property has been unused since 2004, when the Cattle Company closed. In 2008, funds were awarded to an Eddie Merlot’s restaurant project for remediation of on-site methane. Although that project was not built in the end, the city requested two extensions of the funding deadlines in hope a project would materialize. Onsite grading is now underway to implement a methane remediation plan for the Hampton Inn.

Regardless of the outcome of that project, site remediation is necessary, according to city staff.

Hampton Inn and Suites currently operates the existing hotel located a block east of the proposed location at the corner of Wayzata Blvd. and Westwood Road. Although there are no future reuse plans for building or site at this time, it is unlikely two hotels with the same franchise name would operate in such close proximity.

“It’s a great neighborhood to be in,” Tom Torgenson, the project’s developer said, referencing the site's close proximity to the corporate headquarters of large companies like General Mills and Syngenta.

It’s estimated that the project will cost in excess of $10 million and once completed will employ 15 full-time employees. 

According to the project's architect John D. Hafner, the five-story hotel will feature an indoor pool, small conference facility, fitness center, large lobby and about 100 guest rooms. Developers hope to break ground in spring 2012 and expect construction to take one year. 

The has sent the hotel project to the planning commission because it requires a conditional use permit, major amendment to an existing master development and a final site and building plan review, with variances. Because the Nov. 3 planning commission meeting has been cancelled, discussion on Hampton Inn is tentatively scheduled for the Nov. 17 planning commission meeting.