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11/30/2006
80-room hotel planned for Commons
Ray Minervini Jr., walks across the original terrazzo floors of the 7,200-square-foot former dining hall in Building 22 at the Grand Traverse Commons. TRAVERSE CITY — Companies based in Texas and Wisconsin are working with local developer Ray Minervini to bring an 80-room boutique hotel to the Grand Traverse Commons property. John Weeman Jr. of Dallas-based Partners in Development said he's in negotiations with The Minervini Group and Inn Development & Management of Fort Atkinson, Wis., to renovate two century-old cottages and a connecting dining hall into a specialty hotel featuring a restaurant, bar and banquet room facilities. Weeman said the partners hope to finalize the deal by next spring and open the hotel in 2008. Costs for the project are still being developed, but a preliminary estimate is around $20 million. "We think an inn ... would be a very good companion for what's going on up there,” Weeman said. "We think it's missing from that marketplace.” The project involves two former residential cottages for male patients at the old state hospital grounds, buildings 28 and 40, and a large dining hall built around 1917 that is between the two structures. Commons developer Raymond Minervini II said the existing structures encompass around 75,000 square feet, with plans for a 25,000-square- foot addition. The architectural firm for the project is Kahler Slater Architects of Milwaukee. "We're excited about it ... it's one of the better match-ups up here in terms of the space,” Minervini said. "(The dining hall) has an amazing open floor plan. It's a tremendous space for dining and banquet facilities.” The term boutique hotel generally is used for smaller inns of less than 150 rooms in a combination of suites and rooms, featuring upscale dining and amenities with specialized meeting and banquet rooms. "What's most-unique about a boutique hotel is the customer service,” said Connie Barbian of Inn Development & Management, which would manage the hotel. The company currently operates four boutique hotels and offers consulting and management services to other inns and lodges around the country. Weeman said he became familiar with The Minervini Group's redevelopment of the sprawling ex-state hospital grounds west of Division Street while at his summer home on Torch Lake in Antrim County. "I've been watching Ray Minervini's progress at the Commons with great interest,” he said. Weeman's company has been involved with the re-development of other historic hotels around the country, and is wrapping up a $50 million restoration of the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City, the oldest hotel in the state. Minervini said the hotel is among another wave of new businesses headed for the Commons property that include a small winery and a local bakery. Developers will have about half of Building 50, the former main administration building for the state hospital, renovated by next spring, encompassing around 200,000 square feet of new development. [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
