Holiday Inn proposed for Skyline site in Mounds View.

Byline: Brian Johnson

A Plymouth-based developer is modifying its plans for the blighted Skyline Motel site in Mounds View, a property long targeted by the city for redevelopment.

Commercial Investors Group said Tuesday it's contemplating a 90-room Holiday Express hotel at the 2.85-acre site near Old Highway 8 and Mounds View Boulevard instead of a previously planned lodge with 40 short-stay and 40 long-stay rooms.

"We have to get a feasibility study back before we make any final decisions," said Mike Sowers, CEO and managing partner of Commercial Investors Group. "Our initial preliminary feasibility study showed that an extended-stay was probably not the way to go there."

The Skyline Motel property is at 4889 Old Highway 8. The site 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 business on the south.

A magnet for police calls, the Skyline property has been on the city's redevelopment radar for more than two decades. An earlier plan to build low-income housing there fell through after the developer failed to secure tax-credit financing.

City Administrator Nyle Zikmund said last March that the property is the "entry point to our city. Let's say the current property is underutilized."

In a move toward redevelopment, the city of Mounds View recently closed a deal to purchase the site for $1.3 million, according to a certificate of real estate value filed in Ramsey...