Jan. 16–From playing in an annual band competition while attending North High School to eating dinners with his family, Zach Halmstad has plenty of pleasant childhood memories associated with the former Ramada Convention Center.
So Halmstad, the founder and co-CEO of JAMF Software, which has its office in downtown Eau Claire and is building a new company headquarters next to Phoenix Park, watched with a mix of frustration and sadness during the past decade as the hotel slid further into disrepair and its customers became fewer.
“It’s been tough to watch,” Halmstad, a 35-year-old Eau Claire native, said of the continued troubles of the hotel, which closed its doors Nov. 24 after three sheriff’s auctions last year failed to turn up a new committed owner. “For the past 10 years, the place has been falling apart.”
Halmstad hopes to change that. On Wednesday, he announced that the Pablo Properties investors he leads bought the property at 205 S. Barstow St. with plans to redevelop it into a quality hotel that could help further downtown revitalization efforts. Records show the group purchased the building Dec. 27 for $1.62 million from Dougherty Funding of Minneapolis, the mortgage holder.
Plans call for a complete overhaul of the existing building, which has continued to decline in recent years and was in violation of city building codes in recent times. The hotel’s 123 rooms would be reduced to 80 or 90, which would include suites and long-stay rooms. The attached convention center also would undergo renovation, Halmstad said, and the hotel would include a new restaurant and coffee shop.
Halmstad said he hopes to open the hotel, which doesn’t yet have a different name, by the end of this year. Pablo Properties has selected Market & Johnson of Eau Claire as the general contractor and is working with Wayzata, Minn.-based Empirical Hotel Investments as an adviser for hotel operations.
People with knowledge of the deal praised it as a much-needed step to provide quality hotel accommodations downtown.
“It is a very important next step in continued downtown redevelopment,” City Manager Russell Van Gompel said. “It helps fulfill a goal of making Eau Claire a place where people want to come and visit.”
Dan Clumpner, vice president of Commonweal, part of the Haymarket Concepts team that has proposed the $77.2 million Confluence Project, a performing arts center and mixed-use student housing/commercial space at the convergence of the Eau Claire and Chippewa rivers, said a quality downtown hotel would fill a much-needed niche.
“It’s great news,” Clumpner said. “This is a wonderful example of a local business leader supporting the whole downtown redevelopment initiative. The synergy between this and the Confluence (is) pretty exciting.”
‘Big undertaking’
Halmstad acknowledged taking on the former Ramada is “a big undertaking.” The structure, built in 1976 and originally operated as a Hilton, has struggled economically for years and went into foreclosure last year after its then-owner, SB Hotel Management, failed to pay bills in a timely fashion.
Much of the building’s mechanical equipment hasn’t been maintained, meaning remodeling the building will be costly, Halmstad said. In addition, some of the former hotel’s rooms aren’t in good shape.
But Halmstad said he’s heartened by the fact that the building is structurally sound and was constructed in such a manner as to provide for lots of remodeling options.
“Every time we walk through there we’re more and more amazed at how well the building was built,” Halmstad said.
Void to fill
The project is welcome news to Visit Eau Claire’s Linda John, who said Eau Claire loses out on hundreds of thousands of lost business annually because of the city’s lack of a quality downtown hotel and convention center.
“This announcement by Pablo Properties has huge economic impact potential for Eau Claire while also serving the local community that has had to look elsewhere for reliable meeting space,” said John, the executive director of the tourism promotion organization.
Van Gompel said Eau Claire has gained a reputation throughout Wisconsin as a city without a quality downtown hotel and convention center.
“The city’s image suffers from that,” he said.
Halmstad said the decision to buy the former Ramada was driven in part by the fact JAMF employees and others working with the software company don’t have a decent downtown hotel at which to stay. This week alone a dozen out-of-towners will come to Eau Claire for business with JAMF.
“There isn’t any place downtown for them to go,” Halmstad said, “There is absolutely no way I would put a friend or a co-worker up (at the former Ramada).”
Downtown driven
The decision to remodel the former Ramada is the latest sign of Halmstad’s commitment to downtown Eau Claire. He located JAMF’s Eau Claire office just across the street from the hotel when the company that creates software solutions for Apple technologies began in 2002. Today, workers are building a new company headquarters next to Phoenix Park, a site with room for 300 employees (the company currently has about 125).
Halmstad has plans to remodel another run-down hotel. He recently announced he is partnering with Grammy award-winning musician Justin Vernon, Volume One publisher Nick Meyer, Eau Claire Regional Arts Council executive director Ben Richgruber and web entrepreneur Stuart Sandler to buy Green Tree Inn & Suites, 516 Galloway St.
“I’ve always loved downtown,” Halmstad said. “It is important for (Pablo Properties) to be a part of downtown revitalization. We need to put our money where our mouth is, and this is us doing that.”
Emerson can be reached at 715-830-5911, 800-236-7077 or julian.emerson@ecpc.com.
