A hotel construction boom is hitting Rochester, Minn., in anticipation of Mayo Clinic's 20-year, $5 billion renovation and expansion plan, according to an Albert Lea Tribune report.
Today, Rochester has 5,500 hotel rooms, but will likely have an additional 2,000 rooms and 18 new properties by 2016, Brad Jones, executive director of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in the report. Seven have already been announced.
The new hotels will make Rochester more competitive with other hospitality hubs in Minnesota, such as Bloomington (9,100 hotel rooms), Minneapolis (7,300), St. Paul (7,200) and Duluth (6,100). The Tribune collected those figures from a December 2013 STR Global report, which gathers hotel data for the Minnesota Lodging Association.
The name of Mayo Clinic's expansion plan — "Destination Medical Center" — is not colloquial. Mayo leaders have expressed intent to make Rochester more attractive on an international level.
The health system created an agency last fall to oversee economic growth in Rochester. City and Mayo leaders have also estimated a population boom over the next 20 years, with about 32,000 more residents expected to settle in Rochester as the clinic expands.
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