The Thayer Hotel in Annandale, vacant for seven years, may soon have new owners and new business venture.
Andrew Hybben and his daughter Lisa Marie have entered into an agreement to purchase the building from the current owner Paul Bertelson of Renewal Development of Minneapolis.
The plan is to convert the former hotel into a business center and coffee and bakery-cafe.
Coffee bakery and cafe
The main floor of the building would look like a typical coffee shop with comfortable seating, a coffee bar and bakery. Conference rooms will also be available for business meetings.
According to Laurie Knutson, who is handling marketing for the new venture, they are interested in partnering with a caterer to provide lunch items utilizing the commercial kitchen located on the first floor.
"We also are open to a caterer utilizing the dining room for special events," Hybben said. "The dining room would seat from 60 to 80 guests."
The Hybbens have experience in the restaurant business.
"Our family owned and operated the Silver Bell Diner in Eagan," Hybben said. When we sold it they changed the name to Cosmo’s.
Hybben’s daughter Lisa is an experienced baker.
Office suites
The Hybbens are looking to convert the bedroom suites on the second floor into small retail or business office suites.
"For the time being the third floor will operate as a hotel," Hybben said.
"We expect to close on the sale in the next few weeks," Hybben said. "There are a few more inspections to be done and then we will be ready to go."
History
Opened in December 1895, the Thayer was the first building in Annandale to have gas lights and electricity. When the hotel opened, located right across from the Annandale Depot, there were 35 guest rooms.
Caroline and Gus Thayer built the hotel when they were offered land and operating capital from the Soo Line Railroad.
In 1920 the Thayers sold the hotel to Samuel Heasely and he renamed it the Annandale Hotel.
Over the years, the hotel deteriorated and was used mostly for inexpensive housing. When the hotel came up for sale in 1976, the city of Annandale feared that a new owner would continue to operate it as a cheap hotel. The city purchased the hotel and owned it for six years. The city almost had the hotel demolished.
Julia Barkley and other citizens got the hotel placed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
In 1984, then-Mayor Wally Houle and a group of businessmen purchased the Thayer and began restoring it. Houle’s group put $500,000 into the project. In the spring of 1885 the hotel re-opened under its previous name, the Thayer Hotel.
After a series of other owners and operators, Sharon Gammel bought the hotel in 1993 and it became the Thayer Inn, an 11-room bed and breakfast. Gammel, who marketed the inn as haunted, continued to run the Thayer until 2010.
Paul Bertelson, the present owner, bought the building in 2015. After two years of renovations, signs went up this past June calling it The Historic Annandale Hotel and Helga’s Cafe.
Bertelson was introduced to Andrew and Lisa Marie Hybben this summer and it was decided that the property would be sold to them.
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