New hotel will be Excelsior s first in 60 years It s the first one in 60 years in the city, which has had about a dozen in the past. January 29, 2021 6:23pm Text size Copy shortlink:
Excelsior, a one-time summer vacation mecca, is about to get its first hotel in 60 years four luxury rooms on the second floor of a downtown building previously occupied by dilapidated empty apartments.
The Hotel Excelsior is under construction on Water Street, the city s main drag, a couple of blocks from Lake Minnetonka.
It s the second hotel in the past few years to open anywhere around the lake, which in the late 1800s was ringed with grand hotels. The 92-room Hotel Landing in Wayzata, across the street from the lake, opened in 2017. Excelsior also has a bed-and-breakfast, the Bird House Inn.
Could the Legends site be deemed a local landmark?
A building preservation advocate said he plans to nominate the Fourth Street Southeast site for historical review after a split Rochester City Council gave the green light for demolition. 6:30 am, Jan. 28, 2021 ×
The former Legends Bar & Grill location along the Zumbro River in downtown Rochester. Photo taken Jan. 20, 2021. (Andrew Link / alink@postbulletin.com)
A local preservation advocate plans to nominate the building occupied by Legends Bar and Grill as a Rochester landmark.
“Obviously my goal here is to create some public discussion, not only at the HPC level, but at the community level and the city council level, to stop the demolition of these buildings,” Kevin Lund told members of the city’s Heritage Preservation Commission this week. “There seems to be some measure of urgency it’s beyond me what it is to take these buildings down.”
Print subscribers If you re a print subscriber, but do not yet have an online account, click here to create one.
Non-subscribers
How small is too small for homes in Ely?
Planning and Zoning Commission looks to establish size guidelines Posted
Keith Vandervort
ELY – The minimum size of a home allowed to be built in this community is headed for more than just small talk by zoning officials and council members. A study session planned for this week was postponed until February to give the Planning and Zoning Commission more time to prepare a way forward for a not-so-tiny issue that has been under construction for months.
Preservation rules hinder couple s plans to renovate old Excelsior property Project couple thought would be really cool has turned into a can of worms. January 23, 2021 7:43am Text size Copy shortlink:
John and Kelly Harrington knew the 120-year-old Victorian in downtown Excelsior needed work, but it still seemed the perfect place to launch a plan to live above their own boutique.
What they didn t realize when they bought the $750,000 former flower shop in March is how closely any renovations would have to follow a strict set of city requirements designed to maintain the exterior s original appearance. Quite candidly, we probably did not do our due diligence, John Harrington said. We naively thought we d be welcome to do these updates and changes and do something nice for the community.