Hotel at 20 Washington Avenue South

Developer Chad Tepley's CDT Realty presented plans in April 2026 to convert Minoru Yamasaki's 1965 Northwestern National Life Building — vacant since 2023 — into a 165-room hotel, with a rooftop pool deck in the former mechanical penthouse and a restaurant along the building's reflecting pools. No hotel name, brand or operator has been confirmed, and the projected 2028 opening depends on financing and approvals not yet in place.

The place

20 Washington Avenue South, on the edge of downtown Minneapolis near the Mississippi riverfront, on a site whose soaring entrance portico was designed to create sightlines from the river to downtown.

The concept

Designed in 1965 by Minoru Yamasaki — the architect later known for the original World Trade Center towers — as the headquarters of Northwestern National Life Insurance, the building later housed Voya Financial and has sat vacant since 2023. Developer Chad Tepley's CDT Realty bought the tower for $7.1 million in November 2025 and presented plans in April 2026 to convert it into a 165-room hotel, retaining Yamasaki's defining architectural features while adding a ballroom and pool deck inside the former rooftop mechanical penthouse, a roughly 17,000-square-foot patio built above the ground-floor portico, and a restaurant along the building's original reflecting pools. Tepley has framed the project as finally realizing Yamasaki's original vision for the tower as a gateway landmark. No hotel name, brand or operating company has been announced, and the 2028 opening target is explicitly provisional, pending financing and approvals.

Dining & wellness

Plans include a restaurant along the building's reflecting pools and a rooftop pool deck/ballroom in the former mechanical penthouse; none of this is built yet and no restaurant operator has been named.