Website live, completion planned by May 31, 2023

By John McLoone

Representatives of IDM Hospitality and developers of The Confluence welcomed members of the Hastings Development and Redevelopment Authority for a tour prior to their meeting Thursday night.

HEDRA members were impressed with the work being done in the 100,000squarefoot building.

IDM officials said the building will be open for business by May 31, 2023, and hotel reservations can be made online in December.

HEDRA members voted unanimously to recommend to the Hastings City Council an amended substantial completion date of May 31, 2023 and certification of an official minimum valuation of the building as of Oct. 31, 2022 of $5,733,294, which Community Development Director John Hinzman said is the value for tax purposes starting Jan. 1, 2023.

“The good news for us is that means we would have tax revenue coming in from the project here,” said Hinzman.

IDM Executive Vice President Becky Rogers said the firm is excited to be wrapping up construction on The Confluence, located in the former Hudson Manufacturing building along the Mississippi River at 200 2nd St. W. The journey to converting the building to where it is today started with planning at the city in 2009, leading to the purchase of the building in 2010 for 2023. It was set up in a tax incremental financing district, where a portion of the property taxes helps pay debt incurred by the city/HEDRA in helping get the building ready for development.

Rogers said the website for The Confluence is now active at confluencehotel.com, and that there’s an opportunity to request information on the project on the site, if citizens are interested.

“Our website will be launching tomorrow,” she told HEDRA members. “We wanted to wait to show you first what it’s going to look like. Our ‘splash’ page is going live. We can start communicating with our local community and show them some of the progress as well. We’re excited to be launching this phase of our opening. It does give a little more traction. It starts to feel a little more real.”

“The ‘splash’ page will turn into a regular website Dec. 1.

“At that point, we will be accepting reservations for both the apartments, for meeting space, for overnight guests. We have several inquiries in place for that,” Rogers said. “It’s committing to spring 2023. Whatever’s on that website’s real, right?”

Rogers said a hotel general manager is currently being hired, and a sales director and executive chef will be hired by year end.

She said she appreciated being able to give HEDRA members a “sneak peek behind the curtain” during the building tour.

She said that the building will be an homage, obviously, to the history of the building. She said it will have a “town and country feel,” described on the website as: “Our hotel will marry the traditions of the region and historical relevance with the upscale style of the historic downtown. Once inside you will experience the preservation and reimagined building. The refined and carefully curated accommodations harken to the buildings former glory with relevance for our travelers. Our hotel will feature a bar and restaurant to attract visitors and locals, as well as a 350person interior event space with breathtaking views of the river and Hastings bridge. The property also brings Hastings enhanced outdoor event spaces with room for dining on the patio, venues for live entertainment, and a tented space for social events. Our north wing features apartments, with layouts for studio, 1bedroom, and 2bedroom units, as well as secured underground parking and tenant storage.”

The development logo also works in the cupolas, which were installed last summer among fanfare and have been lighted on occasion.

“We’re very proud of that, and you can see from our logo, that cupola is our image. We’re embracing that in a lot of different ways,” she said.

Rogers said The Confluence will employ 6570 people, and she’s hoping as much of the workforce as possible lives within 10 miles of the development.

“We will start the hiring process the first of the year,” she said. “We’re going to start taking on some real feet on the ground movement into this operation.”

HEDRA Chair Bruce Goblirsch thanked Rogers for keeping HEDRA informed.

“Thank you for the tour today. It was very fun to see everything coming together. It’s going to be an awesome addition to our community,” he said.

Hinzman said it was a great opportunity to see how far along the project is.

“We were able to take a tour of the building, see the progress that’s been happening. The commission, the council and the public here are very excited to see what’s happening with the building. We were able to see great activities, great progress that has been occurring there,” he said. “It’s taking its shape into a hotel, restaurant and banquet facility. You can see where the rooms are laid out, where the HVAC and electrical is going in. You could really get the shape of the building.”

The exterior of the building has been painted and windows have been replaced, and site improvements have taken place as well.

“This has been a long process as we all know here. WE took possession of the Hudson building in 2010. We started the project in 2009. We’re going to have a finished project in 2023, which will be a great symbol for the city,” said Hinzman. “When we took a look at this project in the very beginning, we didn’t know really what we wanted to see on that site. We wanted to have a spot in Hastings that would be a place where people, when they cross the new bridge, they could look down and see this is something that would draw people into town. We have to stop and look at this. That was the goal we established in wanting to acquire this property and going through all the work we have.”

“Frankly, it probably would have been a lot easier to demolish that building, but we would not have the type of development we see today. It’s taken a long time. There have been unexpected detours, costs and other things, but we’re very thankful for what has gone on in the building and the dedication of the staff and the developers in making this really come to fruition.”

Mint Development is partnering with IDM and kicked off construction in 2018. COVID shutdowns affected the project financing, and a substantial completion date of Oct. 31 of this month was set last summer, leading to this final extension.

Construction is well underway on the interior of The Confluence. The building will house apartments, commercial space, a hotel, meeting space and restaurant. It’s set to open by May 31, 2023. Photo courtesy of IDM Hospitality

Work was done on the outside of The Confluence in downtown Hastings. Photo courtesy of IDM Hospitality