Embassy Suites in downtown St. Paul sold to Drury, will close for remodeling

The Embassy Suites by Hilton-St. Paul will close in January as it undergoes a change of ownership and remodeling to become a Drury Plaza Hotel.

With the closing on Jan. 8, 116 people will lose their jobs, the hotel said in a layoff notice sent Friday to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

The hotel is being acquired by St. Louis-based Drury, which is just beginning to enter the Twin Cities market, from Platinum Equity, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based private-equity firm. Terms were not immediately available. Platinum Equity also owns the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Bloomington.

Drury earlier this year purchased land near Interstate 494 and France Avenue in Bloomington and announced plans to build a 214-room hotel.

In St. Paul, Drury is picking up an eight-story 208-room building that was built in 1996 and renovated five years ago. Located at 175 10th St. E., the hotel is in the northeast corner of downtown St. Paul near state office buildings and Regions Hospital. It is managed by Interstate Hotels and Resorts Inc. of Arlington, Va.

Embassy Suites will continue taking reservations until Dec. 30, but the hotel staff is rebooking people who reserved rooms and meeting space for later in 2019 to other hotels in St. Paul, a spokesman said.

A statement by a representative of Interstate said the hotel would get an extensive renovation and did not include a reopening date. The statement said the hotel would become Drury's first in Minnesota, though Drury earlier this year said the Bloomington location would be its first in the state.

A Drury executive did not return a call seeking information late Friday.

Drury is owned by its founding family and the company owns and operates all of its hotels rather than franchising to other operators. It currently has about 150 hotels in 25 states.

Evan Ramstad • 612-673-4241