The Rand Tower Hotel, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel

Maven Real Estate Partners spent three years and roughly $110 million turning a 1929 Art Deco office tower into the Rand Tower Hotel, opening as a Marriott Tribute Portfolio property in December 2020. The 270-room conversion keeps the building's original terrazzo, sculpture and aviation motifs intact rather than stripping them out.

The place

The hotel occupies the Rand Tower, a 1929 Art Deco skyscraper at 527 S. Marquette Avenue in Minneapolis' financial district, at the corner of Sixth and Marquette — for decades it was purely office space, briefly the city's tallest building before the Foshay Tower overtook it that same year.

The concept

Maven Real Estate Partners bought the Rand Tower in 2017 and spent roughly $110 million converting the Holabird & Root-designed office building into its first-ever life as a hotel, opening as a Marriott Tribute Portfolio property in December 2020. ESG Architecture & Design led the conversion with an explicit brief to preserve, rather than paper over, the building's aviation-themed Art Deco fabric: the original terrazzo floors, the lobby's limestone Mercury sculptures, and Oskar J.W. Hansen's 'Wings' sculpture were all retained. The aviation motif — a nod to developer Rufus Rand Jr., a World War I aviator — carries through the guest experience down to staff uniforms styled after flight gear. It's a conversion project in the fullest sense: 270 rooms and over 7,000 square feet of event space carved into a building never designed to hold either, which explains both its idiosyncratic room shapes and its status as one of downtown Minneapolis' more distinctive boutique addresses.

Dining & wellness

The hotel's food and beverage program runs through Blondette, a brunch-focused restaurant set beneath a glass retractable roof, and Bar Rufus, a lobby bar serving modern American fare, coffee and cocktails.