WINONA, Minn.—An investor group led by big-time Northfield deal-maker and hotelier Brett Reese has bought the historic Exchange building downtown. Property transfer records show a $1.3 million transaction. The plan apparently is to convert the four-story brick and stone structure at Fourth and Center Streets into a luxury boutique hotel, likely with a five-star dining room. It would be Winona’s first downtown hotel in more than a decade. The last to disappear:
> Winona Hotel, 157 West Third, built in 1889 as Winona’s classiest hotel. It was considered theater-destination lodging for out-of-town guests. Converted in 1985 into senior apartments and renamed the Kensington.
> Schlitz Hotel, 129 West Third, built in 1892 by the Schlitz brewery Milwaukee at a time when breweries dabbled in hotel ventures. Its glory faded with the decline of downtown mercantilism in the 1960s. Its last hurrah included the fashionable Zach’s fine-dining establishment on the ground floor. Now mostly low-rent apartment units.
> AmericInn, moderate-price lodging at Huff and Riverview Drive. Demolished ahead of the 2016 conversion of the Interstate Bridge to four lanes. No connection with the current AmerInn in the Fastenal neighborhood on the Far West End.
The $1.3 million purchase agreement for the Exchange Building includes a parking lot between the building and Bub’s Brewing Company bar.
Conversion ahead. Now an office building with transition ahead into what property transaction documents describe vaguely as “lodging space.” State State subsidies to restore historic buildings was championed in the 2021 Legislature by State Senator Jeremy Miller, R-Winona. Miller specifically cited new Downtown projects. Among recent supported restorations.
> 102 Walnut. home of Nosh Scratch Kitchen.
> Latsch Building, 114 East Second Street, home of Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union.
> Mason Jar building, 151 East Third Street, commercial space and apartments.
> 111 East Riverfront. Former International Harvester factory.
Exchange Building profile
The Grain and Lumber Exchange Building is a historic office building at 51 East Fourth Street. It was designed in Renaissance Revival style by the pre-eminent Minnesota architectural firm of Kees & Colburn and built in 1900. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites in 1977 for its local architectural significance — among Winona’s most architecturally distinctive structures from the turn of the 20th century. It was designed to the specifications of the grain and lumber traders who owned it, although the first tenants were renters. Among Kees and Colburn architectural treasures:
> Northern Implement Building, Minneapolis.
> Chamber of Commerce building, Minneapolis.
> Advance Thresher and Emerson-Newton Implement building, Minneapolis
Winona Real Estate Group
The Exchange Building has been purchased by an entity registered with the secretary of state in St. Paul as Winona Real Estate Group, a limited liability corporation. The company’s registered agent is Brett Reese of Northfield. Reese’s Rebound Enterprises, which has interests in hospitality businesses, real estate, manufacturing, and financial services. The interests include the iconic:
> Archer House River Inn in Northfield.
> Hotel Winneshiek in Decorah, Iowa.
> Des Lux Hotel in Des Moines, Iowa.
He also has not-so-iconic Fairfield Inn cookie-cutter chain hotels in Decorah and Northfield.
Archer Inn in Northfield. On the banks of the Cannon River. At last word, an insurance investigation was pending.
Earlier: Archer House owner dubious about future
Earlier: Fire cause: Faulty barbeque smoker?
Brett Reese profile
Reese says his entrepreneurial drive started early. At 12 he took out his first loan from Castle Rock State Bank to finance a cow and calf operation just outside of Northfield. As he says, he never looked back. He serves as managing principal of Rebound Enterprises an investment and management service company that works with emerging, growth and financially challenged enterprises. He has more than two decades of hospitality industry experience dating back to the purchase of his first restaurant in 1982, Rueb ‘N’ Stein, and his first hotel in 1997, Archer House. He is an executive with Northfield Real Estate Fund, Northfield Real Estate Management, Bluewater Commercial Real Estate,Northfield Automation Systems, Advanced Wireless Communications, and Heywood Bancshares. He has been on the First National Bank of Northfield board of directors since 1997. He has been on the board 3C Capital Partners, a Northfield angel investment group, and the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation, which promotes downtown Northfield as an enterprise center.
Reese. Graduated in 1977 from Northfield High School and in 1981 from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, in accounting and political science. After college, he was an auditor with Grant Thornton.
Exchange Building tenants
The building is currently mostly offices. Appointments are done well and maintained, but without much traffic and human hubbub, not even Muzak, there is a quiet sterility to the place. Tenants include:
First floor
> Common Grounds marriage and family counseling.
> New York Life, Chris Livingston.
> U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency.
> Upper Mississippi Ricer conservation agency.
Second floor
> Comfortmaker air-conditioning.
Third Floor
> Winona Community Foundation.
> Bernatz and Van Beek law office.
Fourth floor
> Presto advertising.
> LeAnn Van Dorn Bousch midwife.
> Tailor Made sewing and alternations
Hotel prospects
Levee site. The City and the Winona Port Authority have talked for years about the possibility of an upscale hotel between the Levee and the Winona 7 movie. Hometown hotel magnate Mike Rivers, who has four hotels at the Far East End, as well as several elsewhere in the region, has been in these discussions. Whether the media-shy Rivers has a role in Exchange Building project could not be ascertained immediately. Nor could it be ascertained immediately whether longtime Winona restorers Mike Gostomski and Peter Shortridge are involved.
Jefferson Bar and Grill. Plans for an Airbnb upstairs of the now-closed Jefferson, at the Levee, fell apart for financial reasons during the pandemic.
Far West End. A new AmericInn, owned by a group including Jerry and Pat Papenfuss, and Days Inn, owned out of the Cities, have budget and mid-range rooms.