Frontier recognizes faces behind its service 2A Bellows challenges, Dahl faces more scrutiny 8A Potential buyer backs out of NWA deal 9A
JESSICA HARPER DERRICK WILLIAMS
JESSICA HARPER
dakotacountytribune.biz dakotacountytribune.biz
DATE ##, 2009 OCTOBER 21, 2010
VOLUME 30, NUMBER # VOLUME 31, NUMBER 34
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Better days ahead for Holiday Inn Burnsville
INSIDE BIZ FORUM
City’s largest hotel under new ownership, is being renovated, and will be renamed under Best Western flag
Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton’s plan to ‘tax the rich’ is no path to prosperity. 5A PHIL KRINKIE
by John Gessner DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
The 25-year-old Holiday Inn Burnsville, the city’s largest hotel and only fullservice lodging property, is undergoing a major upgrade after years of neglect. Sold to new owners in July, the 144-room hotel will also be renamed under the Best Western flag. It will become the Nicollet Inn on Jan. 1 and the Best Western Nicollet Inn once the new owners gain corporate approval, said Nathan Kremer, the hotel’s sales and marketing director. Blithe Hospitality Group, a group of investors from Burnsville and Lakeville that includes the hotel’s former catering and sales director, bought the Holiday Inn Burnsville from an ownership group that also owns the Holiday Inn Metrodome in Minneapolis. The two-toned, five-story hotel, a highly visible landmark perched south of County Road 42 above the junction of Interstate 35E and Interstate 35W, lost occupancy over the years with little interior remodeling to keep the property fresh, Kremer said. “This place was rockin’ for 15, 20 years. As with any hotel, you need to do
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LARRY WERNER
The Dakota County Tribune Business Weekly is looking for exceptional businesswomen to honor. 5A
BUSINESS 101
Photo by Rick Orndorf
Nathan Kremer is director of sales and marketing for the Holiday Inn Burnsville, which is under new ownership. The 25-yearold hotel, Burnsville’s largest, is being renovated and will be renamed under the Best Western flag. updates,� Kremer said. “I think the previous owners just kind of let it go,� said Dan Gustafson, a City Council member who serves on Burnsville’s Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I’m grateful that a company saw the value of that property and came and took it over and is going to make something nice of it, like it was in its glory days. There was a time when the Holiday Inn was the hotel in town.� Blithe Hospitality Group includes Ron and Jamie Dahlen of Burnsville. Ron is vice president of Lakeville-based builder Country Joe Homes. Jamie is a former catering and sales director at Holiday Inn
Burnsville. The Dahlens’ oldest daughter, Angela Thomas, and her husband, Jeremy, of Lakeville, are also part-owners, along with two silent partners from Burnsville, Kremer said. The Dahlens’ first venture into the hospitality business was in 2006, when they were part of a group that bought the old Super 8 Hotel in Lakeville and turned it into the Holiday Inn Lakeville and Rudy’s Redeye Grill. The Dahlens are also part of Lakeville Management group, which manages the Lakeville and Burnsville properties, said Kremer, a former Holiday Inn See Holiday Inn, Page 12A
CARIE STATZ
Imagine captivating potential clients through a well-produced, high-def inition video. 6A
BEST PRACTICES
We’re all busy. So don’t take up more of your customers’ valuable time than you need to. 6A KEVIN STIRTZ
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