More Radisson hotels to open in NYC and Los Angeles

The Radisson name will soon grow its big-city presence with two new hotels in New York and Southern California.

The new properties are part of a five-year strategic plan and nearly $200 million rebranding and repositioning of the Radisson Hotel Group, which includes the Minnetonka-based Radisson Hospitality Inc., that recently changed its name from Carlson Hotels.

The New York hotel will be a core Radisson hotel while the hotel in Anaheim, Calif., will be a more upscale Radisson Blu. While the Twin Cities is already the site of two Radisson Blu hotels (one in downtown Minneapolis and the other at the Mall of America), the only other Blu in the United States is in Chicago.

"The addition of these hotels illustrates that we're already executing on our plan for expansion in our key gateway markets, along with further establishing our Radisson Blu brand in the U.S.," Ken Greene, president of the Americas for the Radisson Hotel Group, said in a statement.

Radisson Hotel Group has eight hotel brands including Country Inn & Suites, Park Plaza and three different Radisson brands.

As part of Radisson Hotel Group's new operating plan, the company has identified 21 key target markets where it plans to open hotels, and in particular, expand the footprint of Radisson Blu in the United States.

Radisson Hotel Group (formerly Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group), the combination of Radisson Hospitality and its European sister company Rezidor Hotel Group, officially changed its name last month as the hospitality company continued to separate itself from the Carlson family who previously led it.

It was one of the many changes the company has implemented since 2016, when Chinese conglomerate HNA Tourism Group purchased the then Carlson Hotels, which also made it the majority shareholder of Rezidor Hotel Group.

Leaders at Radisson Hospitality Inc. had considered moving its offices from the Carlson Towers in Minnetonka, where it has been based, to another Twin Cities location. However, after evaluation, it was recently announced to employees that the company would stay at the towers and renovate its three floors of offices to complete the remainder of its lease obligation through 2021, said Josh Hoffman, executive vice president and chief human resources officer at Radisson Hotel Group.

In recent interviews with the Star Tribune, Radisson Hotel Group leaders said the overhaul of the company includes updating hundreds of properties, revamping its loyalty programs and deploying the new brand schemes.

Earlier this week, Radisson revealed its new model room designs for its core Radisson hotel brand, which exemplifies "natural balance and harmony of the Scandinavian way of life," according to the company.

The new design aesthetic and logo changes will affect more than 160 Radisson hotels in operation and under development in the Americas. The company estimates that it will have to remove 10 to 15 percent of its current Radisson hotels that don't fit with the new direction of the brand.

Radisson Hotel Group is currently the 11th-largest hospitality company in the world, with more than 1,400 hotels in operation and under development. Despite leadership's ambitions to grow, revenue remained flat last year at $7.2 billion, the same as 2016. In 2015, the company generated $7.3 billion in revenue.

The 320-room Radisson hotel in New York City will be a few blocks from Times Square and is expected to open during the spring of 2019. Radisson already has several hotels in the New York area.

The 326-room Radisson Blu Anaheim, a half-mile from Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park, is scheduled to open by summer 2020.

With the new hotels, the Radisson Hotel Group hopes to get closer to its goal of adding 56,000 rooms across the Americas and Asia Pacific and 13,000 more rooms across Europe, the Middle East and Africa by 2022.

Nicole Norfleet • 612-673-4495