New Amenities Coming to Bemidji

The Hampton Inn and BREC Considering New Hotels

 By Natalie Reque

With the sparkling blue waters splashing up on the many sandy beaches, and the flourishing pine tree-woods used for many seasonal activities, the city of Bemidji has prime land to be developed and for it flourish.  According to the City-Data page located on the internet for the public to see, Bemidji itself has a population of about 13,749, but the county has 43,835 according to the public data files. 

One of the signs that Bemidji is on its way on becoming more then a tourist town is the finalization of the Bemidji Regional Event Center (BREC) located on the south shores of Lake Bemidji. It officially opens with the first men and women's hockey games of the season on Oct. 15. With the selling out of the tickets for the game, one can see how excited the community is about this new development.

However, the city of Bemidji is not going to stop there with just the event center and the new hockey arena that they spent an estimated $90.7 million on. It is also in the progress of making plans for a new Holiday Inn hotel to go in right next door to the existing event center building. The original idea came from the fact that it will be convenient for the family members of the teams and the people who have purchased year round seats in the BREC.

Because of the large amount of money that was used to build the BREC, there have been rumors that the city  is having a hard time funding the new hotel. However, that rumor was thwarted by development specialist Ryan Zemek of the Headwaters Regional Development Commission.  “There is a developer, Ray Brenny, interested in and made an offer to the city for the land, and it is contingent on him getting backed from the bank,” he said.  Ray Brenny is a private contractor from the Bemidji area who works for Red Lake Tribe; he also runs all the hotels for Red Lake. Brenny was not available for questions concerning the new hotel.

 The BREC itself is owned by the city and roughly 180 more acres. “The city is trying to sell the land to private developers, and if anything the city is having a hard time doing that” said Zemek during the interview.

This new hotel that Ray Brenny is considering putting up is going to be a Holiday Inn and Resort making it a notch better than a normal hotel. It will be attached to the BREC building via a glass walkway  and contain a Minnesota sports bar so that people can come in and enjoy a large screen TV or get out of the elements for a few minutes while they are tailgating during games. Of course, there is going to be more rooms which will accommodate those coming to town for conference meetings and banquets held at the BREC.

But there is competition in the air. It has been confirmed from the local papers and managers at the Hampton Inn that the Hampton Inn Hotel is expanding.  “We are putting up a new hotel on the other side of us,” declared day manager Debbie Peck of the Hampton Inn and Suites. “The BREC hotel is not part of our chain so it will not be a hotel we would not be working with so to speak and yes, they would be considered a competitor.”  Instead of just adding onto the already existing building, the Hilton Company has bought a piece of land next to them right across from the Green Mill restaurant, and will be putting up an entire new building.

It also will not be just another Hampton Inn; this new hotel will be notch higher on the Hilton chain of hotels. The Hilton line contains the Homewood Suites, Homes2Suites, Hampton Inn, the Hilton Garden Inn, Doubletree, Embassy Suites Hotel, and the Conrad Hotels containing the Waldorf Hotels.

When asked why the Hampton does not just add onto their building, Peck responded by saying that there are city ordinances that need to be abided by such as buildings can only be so tall in the city of Bemidji and so long, and also it would not be astatically pleasing. As for the competition, Hampton does not feel any need to worry considering that every hotel has their own specific amenities, and now with the Northern Inn closing up the city will be able to support two more hotels.

Both hotels are looking to start as soon as possible with the building process. As for the actually breaking ground, they may have to wait until spring when the anticipated snow will clear.

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 The BREC located on the south shores of Lake Bemidji.

 Part of the land the BREC wishes to put an adjoining hotel.

The adjoining piece of land that the BREC and the Hampton Inn are putting new hotels. The Hampton can be seen in the background.