Dual-stay hotel pitched for Mounds View's Skyline site.

Byline: Brian Johnson

A local developer wants to replace an aging 1950s-era motel in Mounds View with a new dual-stay hotel, a project that could inject some life into a property long targeted for higher and better uses.

Plymouth-based Commercial Investors Group envisions an 80-room hotel with 40 "short-stay" and 40 "long-stay" rooms on the existing 2.85-acre Skyline Motel site, according to a plan presented to the City Council on March 11.

The hotel concept is the latest stab at reviving the distressed Skyline property, which is framed by old Highway 8 and Mounds View Boulevard on the east, a metal fabrication plant on the west and the Bio Clean Mobile Wash facility on the south.

The city, which has an agreement to purchase the Skyline site, is fielding redevelopment proposals through May 8. An earlier plan to build low-income housing there fell through after the developer failed to secure tax-credit financing.

Nyle Zikmund, Mounds View's city administrator, said the City Council has authorized staff to begin negotiating a deal for the hotel.

The existing motel has attracted frequent police calls and has been on the city's redevelopment radar for more than two decades, he said.

"It's the entry point to our city. Let's say the current property is underutilized," Zikmund said in an interview.

The Skyline site is part of a corridor primed for big changes.

Elsewhere in the corridor, INS Properties plans to break ground soon on a 127-unit market-rate apartment complex, Zikmund said. That property is at the southeast corner of Mounds View Boulevard and County Road H2.

In addition, the Mermaid event center at 2200 Mounds View Blvd. was recently sold and the new owner has "brought forward a number of ideas" for the property, including possible expansion plans, Zikmund said.

Finance & Commerce reported in February that an equity partner of Triple Shift Entertainment paid $4.6 million for the Mermaid.

Commercial Investors Group said in its presentation that the Skyline site has "great visibility" and highway...