Milwaukee's Iron Horse Hotel owner plans North Loop conversion

The Iron Horse Hotel
The vacant Jackson Building in Minneapolis' North Loop could become a 120-room hotel under plans by Tim Dixon, a Milwaukee developer.

The Journal(formerly the Downtown Journal) reports that Dixon, who owns Milwaukee's Iron Horse Hotel, has already purchased the Jackson Building at the corner of Washington Avenue and Third Avenue North. He's spending much of his time in Minneapolis these days, meeting with neighborhood groups to marshal support for the project. A 6,000-square-foot restaurant, led by Chicago-based chef Suzy Crofton, will be on the ground floor.

The North Loop only has one hotel right now — the TownePlace Suites a few blocks away — and neighbors agree there's plenty of demand for a new one.

The area is among Minneapolis' hottest neighborhoods. After a surge of condo and apartment construction in the past decade, it's also drawn several popular new restaurants and retailers (just across the street from the Jackson Building, boutique retailers Filson and Shinola opened recently).

It's also become a hub for tech companies — adjacent to the Jackson Building is the Colonial Warehouse Building, which now houses several technology businesses.

The one issue is parking: There isn't any. So Dixon hopes to work out deals to use either the city's nearby municipal lots or other nearby ramps.

Reported by:  BizJournals.com