Clearwater may be the home of a large scale hotel in the near future.

 

At the last Clearwater City Council meeting, developer Lee Fundanet spoke to the council about  Clearwater’s potential for a large hotel/restaurant complex.

 

“I think from a developer’s standpoint when you drive around you just get an eye for what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’ve had an eye on here for awhile.  It’s a heavy transition area and  there’s not a lot of offerings from a hotel standpoint.”

 

Fundanet said he and Councilman Rollie Lange had spoken over the past few months about what opportunities Clearwater had to offer. Lange mentioned the city’s desire to build some type of youth sports facility that could draw people ot the city. That came for the “Clearwater as an Oasis” concept that the EDA was promoting late last year.

 

Fundanet has a lot of experience in hotel development. His company purchased a hotel in Rochester, renovated it into a Wyndham Hotel with a Cowboy Jacks restaurant.

 

“We’ve taken a $3.5 million investment that’s now worth $18 million, so we’ve had some good growth,” he said.

 

They also renovated a 265-room Radisson Hotel in Duluth and built a 121-room Country Inn and Suites in Bemidji with a  restaurant on the lake. They also built a $400,000 connection from the hotel to the Sanford Hockey Arena and donated it to the city.

 

“It’s a benefit to us to have it and its a benefit for them to get it because they were missing out on events because they didn’t have a hotel attached to their arena,” said Fundanet.

 

He said because of its location, Clearwater would benefit form a large, well-know hotel.

 

“I think you’d want to do something that’s heavily branded. There’s different brands that have better draw on transient travellers, and this is the market I think you’d want,” he said, “a Starwood, Hilton, Marriott - something that’s got recognition. You could have a nice western style restaurant attached to it. That would draw some truckers, some weekend travelers and some sports.”

 

He said he has built on as little as 1.5 acres and up to six acres. But three acres would be enough.

 

Mayor Pete Edmonson asked what Fundanet felt his role as developer and the city’s role would be to move forward.

 

Fundanet said the next step would be to form a relationship with the city and have another discussion with the council to determine how they would partner to possibly choose a site and bring in investors.

 

“We’d like to pursue what land options are available in the area and what momentum the city can do to help to create an environment to do a project here. Each project I’ve seen happen, there was some action from the city council and mayor,” he said. “We’ve done $50 million in development over the last four years. We’ve had success because we create value to the community.”

 

Lange and Administrator Kevin Kress said the would meet with Fundanet to look at agreements they have had with other cities.