Springhill Suites

• Springhill Suites – 139 hotel rooms (per the JR Hospitality website)
• Learned about the project through a referral
• Built a relationship with the ownership group, JR Hospitality, and won the business
• Worked exceedingly well with Benson-Orth, the general contractor
• First hotel and first wood-frame structure in our portfolio
• Provided electrical work throughout entire building

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Springhill Suites, operated by Marriott International, is the largest all-suites brand in the upscale tier. As of June 1, 2021, there were 488 properties with 57,590 open rooms and another 169 properties in the pipeline.

One of the newer properties is the 139-room Springhill Suites in Arden Hills, MN, owned by JR Hospitality.
With a diverse portfolio of properties, JR Hospitality is a fast-growing hotel company based in Bloomington, MN and partners with Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Choice Hotels and Hyatt Hotels. Currently, they own eight open hotels in Minnesota and five in Wisconsin, with seven more in development in Minnesota, two in Wisconsin and two in Colorado.

After more than 30 years in business, we had set our sights on breaking into the hospitality industry and this 5-story structure was the perfect introduction.

JR Hospitality was referred to us and reached out to one of our project managers. As we began conversations and learning more about the project, we also established and built a relationship with JR Hospitality because for us, relationships are a critical component to any project.
This project intrigued us because:

• It was a hotel
• It was a wood-frame construction structure

We hadn’t worked on either before; hospitality was a new industry to us and although we possessed the knowledge for wood-frame construction, we had only worked on brick-and-mortar buildings in the past.
After a year of conversations and sharpening our pencils to get to an agreeable price, we gained JR Hospitality’s trust and, eventually, the business.

They had hired Benson-Orth as the general contractor and while we were familiar with them, we hadn’t partnered together on a project. We were eager to get started but as sometimes happens with projects like this, we experienced some delays that were out of our control. Eventually, the project got underway, and we provided the electrical work for the entire hotel – all common areas, offices and 139 hotel rooms.

As the project proceeded, we developed a good working relationship with Benson-Orth, who told us we were one of their better sub-contractors. They were pleased with our performance and follow-through, and we stayed ahead of each milestone throughout the project.

After several months, we completed our work and hotel construction was complete. In the end, JR Hospitality was pleased with the work we had done, and Benson-Orth expressed interest in working with us again.

We are looking forward to our next hotel project.