- October 6, 2021
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The Marquette Hotel in downtown Minneapolis sold Monday for an undisclosed sum to Triton Hospitality Group, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based boutique investment firm founded in the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic to acquire and turn around underperforming hotels.
“We’re hoping to bring The Marquette back to its pre-Covid glory,” said Triton co-founder John Murphy, adding that the 281-room hotel will maintain its Curio Collection by Hilton branding following the sale.
Located at 710 S. Marquette Ave., 12-story hotel is linked to the 57-story IDS Center and includes about 26,000 square feet of event space. Constructed in 1970, it underwent a $25 million renovation in 2017 that touched on both its guest rooms and public spaces.
More improvements are planned by Triton, including the addition of two Topgolf Swing Suites to The Jolliet House Social Club, one of two restaurants attached to the hotel, along with The Marquette Lounge.
“As we think about the food and beverage areas, we want to reimagine them and bring a little more energy and life, not just for the in-house guests but for the local clientele,” Murphy said.
Triton’s announcement also promises “aesthetic enhancements” to the hotel’s premier event space, Windows on Minnesota, which offers sweeping views of the metro from the 50th floor of IDS Center, as well as a “transformed” hotel fitness center and an all-new guest room HVAC system.
The Marquette is the first-ever acquisition for Triton, formed earlier this year by Murphy and business partner David Parsky, founder and former managing principal of California private equity firm Arris Investments. Murphy previously served as president of hotel and resort operator Evolution Hospitality, which is slated to take over management of The Marquette.
The hotel last sold in January 2016, when it was acquired by Austin, Texas-based JMI Realty for $74.5 million, according to state and county records. That price works out to $265,125 per room.
A state record of the more recent sale had not been made public as of Tuesday morning.
Jon Ruzicka, first vice president in Marcus & Millichap’s Minneapolis office and a director in the firm’s hospitality division, said the deal was likely a traditional sale and not the sale of a distressed asset. He’d previously heard investors were bidding the property “into the mid-$60 million range,” adding that it may have sold for close to its 2016 valuation.
That’s remarkable for a hotel in Minneapolis’ central business district. The local hospitality market’s pandemic slump was among the worst in country as of this spring, and occupancy rates for downtown hotels were hovering just above 46% as of the last full week of August, according to hospitality analytics firm STR, Inc.
“It was one of the hardest-hit top 25 markets in the U.S.,” Ruzicka said. “When investors on a national level hear that, all they see is upside. There’s a deep, deep hole to dig out of, but why not come in now and experience that upside in the next couple of years?”
He described The Marquette Hotel’s position in the Minneapolis market as “upscale to upper-upscale.” It caters to the business travelers who have yet to return to their pre-pandemic hotel habits.
“The Minneapolis MSA and more predominantly the central business district needs business travel and needs conventions coming back to downtown, especially a property like The Marquette,” Ruzicka said.
Murphy predicted that recovery is on the horizon, adding that The Marquette Hotel is in a prime position to take advantage of a reviving hospitality industry.
“First and foremost, we love the city. We love the fundamentals and the demand generators,” he said. “Secondly, we think the asset is an A-class asset. It was very well renovated by the previous owner.”
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