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For the second time in about two years, the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Bloomington is looking for a new buyer.

The hotel, the La Quinta Inn & Suites Bloomington-Minneapolis, has 233 rooms on 17 floors, according to a press release from Marcus & Millichap, which was hired to market the property.

The property is located at 5151 American Blvd. W. in Bloomington, near the intersection of Interstate 494 and Highway 100. Joseph Ferguson, senior associate at Marcus & Millichap, said in the press release that the property is “strategically located” in the heart of Bloomington and is one of the highest occupancy hotels on the market.

The current owners, Hariom Hospitality Eight LLC, purchased the property in August 2022 for $14.5 million, as Finance & Commerce previously reported. Ferguson said Hariom typically focuses on rural assets and wants to return to its core properties.

“They’ve done a good job here, increased sales significantly and want to sell it at a fair market price. They believe they’ve done everything they needed to do here,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said the property also features a kitchen and dining area that was originally a restaurant, although restaurant operations were suspended during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said this presents a potential value-added situation for a buyer.

“There are a lot of potential contracts from certain agencies like the airport and other companies that would jump on a mid-range hotel with a restaurant component,” Ferguson said in an interview with Finance & Commerce. “There is a competitor not far from that hotel – the Doubletree (by Hilton Hotel Bloomington), which is more of an upscale hotel but also has a restaurant component, and some of the business goes to that hotel.”

As for potential pricing, Ferguson said they are looking for a market rate offer. Ferguson and Jon Ruzicka will be the specialists in marketing the property.

The property was built between 1979 and 1981, according to previous reports from Finance & Commerce. The hotel was renovated in 2015 and offers amenities such as a pool, a gym and 3,200 square feet of event space in three rooms, the press release said.

The property is just over 7.5 miles from the Mall of America and approximately 11 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.

Ted Leines, president of Leines Hotel Advisors, said the hotel market has seen a surge in activity over the past two weeks.

“It’s amazing how the Fed’s signals correlate with how often my phone rings,” Leines said Thursday. “All of my clients have said they expected 2024 to be a slow year, and now I think they’re seeing signs that we’re getting through it.”

Leines said some areas of the business have not yet fully recovered, such as the number of business travelers or the use of hotel rooms for business events. He said this has made it difficult even for established operators and developers to get loans for their projects.

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