Excelsior Bay Hotel
Please note this was the plan for a hotel across from the Port of Excelsior through mid-2023. It is not going forward. Another party purchased the property with plans for a different concept.
Excelsior’s Front Porch
Across from the Port of Excelsior could be a stunning gateway between charming historic Water Street, Excelsior Commons and Lake Minnetonka.
enhncing Excelsior’s identity
For nearly its entire history, Excelsior has been synonymous with “hospitality.” Hotels were a key part for two-thirds of its history, including those located on this site since the year after Excelsior was founded in 1853. The last was called Excelsior Bay Hotel (1926).
tHIS hotel wOULD offer:
The new Excelsior Bay Hotel elegantly would blend the look and feel of historic downtown Excelsior with that of lakeside hotels that once populated Lake Minnetonka. It would provide…
2,000 square feet of retail space
underground & onsite parking
spacious public lawn/room for events
56 hotel rooms, most with lake views
150-person lakeview event area
120-seat lakeview restaurant with rooftop bar
street-level pub with stairs to restaurant
A History of Excelsior Hotels
the first hotel on lake minnetonka was built using this site 170 years ago
Site (plus theater property) in 1854. Lake Minnetonka's first hotel, Galpin Hotel.
Rebuilt Excelsior House, then La Paul House.
La Paul became Excelsior Bay Hotel in 1926. Burned in 1928.
The last lake view hotel, White House. Was across the street (Haskell’s lot); converted to a home for the aged in 1929.
On the lake, in front of White House Hotel.
On the lake, in front of Excelsior Bay Hotel.
Sampson House The last of Excelsior’s significant hotels, torn down in 1961.
The site in 2023.
Excelsior Bay Hotel would be developed as a world class hospitality facility celebrating the city’s history while fueling its future.
visual inspiration:
Images from other boutique hotels and restaurants reflecting the atmosphere we plan to create and foods we would serve within Excelsior Bay Hotel.
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—Promote a more creative/efficient approach to land use, while promoting health, safety, comfort, aesthetics, economic viability & general welfare of our city.
—Improve this site’s design and operation, while incorporating design elements that exceed city standards.
—Have appropriate mass and scale relative to its uses, and surrounding properties.
—Interconnect usable interior and exterior open space.
—Preserve and enhance natural features; such as public views and open space.
—Additional aesthetic features and harmonious design.
—Public seating area.
—Include an energy efficient site design and building materials.
—Use low-impact development techniques.
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—Share a community area that feels “porch like” with a great view; where the public and hotel guests can enjoy it outside or from looking at it from indoors.
—Respect the historic scale of the downtown area.
—Maximize lake view opportunities from as many places within the hotel as possible.
—Bridge to the Commons; ensure design/people-flow compliments the Commons.
—Be inviting/welcoming to the public.
—Offer retail spaces with great exposure.
—Blend rooms, event spaces, a restaurant, a bar and sitting areas in ways that work best operationally and financially.
—Celebrate our timber and plains heritage.
—Make parking discrete.
—Ensure there is a wonderful first experience when guests arrive.
—Remain a place to enjoy public events on Water Street.
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Our managing partner's wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer in August 2022. As a result, he dropped everything, including this project, to be with her through her death in November 2023.
As this was happening, the opportunity to purchase the land on which this project would have taken place was instead given to another buyer.
Meanwhile, we did some awesome work here and still believe, as do most in Excelsior, that this would be a heck of a boost to our economy while updating history respectfully!
See "Details" for more.
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