New owners seek to revitalize Prior Avenue hotel

The Roseville City Council approved the hotel license for the new owners of a hotel at 2401 Prior Ave at the August 10, 2026 city council meeting.

The hotel group, Rose Hospitality LLC, is owned by four hoteliers with experience operating multiple hotel properties in the region. They purchased the property in June 2026 and have been working to refurbish the hotel and bring it into city code compliance so it can reopen to customers.

All that remains is getting the indoor pool up to code, according to the July 31, 2026 Building Inspection Report. The pool will open for use after it’s inspected by the City of Roseville and licensed by Ramsey County.

“We certainly appreciate them working with the City and inspections team to make sure everything is code compliant,” City Manager Pat Trudgeon said at the city council meeting.

They plan to initially open the hotel as Roseville Budget Inn, before pursuing a co-branded franchise as Baymont Inn and Days Inn on the same property, both Wyndham brands. Between now and late October, the hotel is working to convert a section of the hotel into Wyndham branded rooms.

"Understanding the market and what was going on, we knew the property. We knew it well. We knew the trouble the city had. But we were eager when this group came to us in possession of the property. They have an amazing track record of working with us in some of our harder brands to operate across the board. We don’t just do business with any hotel group,” Jonathan Williams, Director of Franchise Sales at Wyndham, said at the city council meeting.

Williams explained that by making the property part Days Inn and part Baymont Inn, the hotel will appeal to both economy customers and midscale customers.

“So you don’t leave out anyone who’s coming. You can get your sports players, you can get your business people. You can get a large array of clientele who comes into the market,” Williams said.

The hotel will need to meet both the City of Roseville’s standards and Wyndham’s brand standards too.

“I think you, Mr. Williams, have expectations as a franchise, but we also have expectations as a city. We want to be able to be equally proud that at all different price points that people can stay here and feel safe,” Councilmember Julie Strahan said at the meeting.

Councilmember Wayne Groff said he felt hopeful about the property and was impressed with the presentation by the new hotel ownership. These sentiments were echoed by Councilmembers Matt Bauer and Robin Schroeder.

“I was pleasantly surprised at how much you had not only corrected, but improved,” Schroeder said at the meeting.

Mayor Dan Roe said that this hotel is an example of why the City of Roseville pursued hotel licensing.

“It’s an opportunity to provide for the marketplace, as was noted, and for providing safe, clean, and healthy places for visitors to our city to stay,” Roe said.

Roe noted that when the hotel licensing was put in place in 2024, multiple hotels in Roseville, even those who had been here long term or were considered–in Roe's words—“most respectable” found things that needed to be corrected in order to get their hotel license approved.

The motion to approve the hotel license for the Roseville Budget Inn passed unanimously.

Harry Pandit, one of the owners and managing partners of the Roseville Budget Inn, told The Roseville Reader they were opening to customers on Saturday, August 15.

The hotel’s website is not yet live and the property still has Norwood Inn signs up, as of the publishing of this article.

“Our plan is to have a public open house and ribbon cutting as a Wyndham hotel in the month of October,” Pandit told The Roseville Reader in an email.

Pandit said that he and his co-owners have over 25 years of experience collectively, owning hotels in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, under multiple brands such as Super 8, AmericInn, Comfort Inn, and Spark by Hilton.

“Our goal to create a better guest experience in this hotel for the visitors of Twin Cities and City of Roseville,” Pandit wrote.

History of the Property

This property was formerly the Norwood Inn & Suites, under different ownership. In March 2025, the hotel license was denied and building condemned due to what city officials asserted were building and fire code violations.

The building condemnation order was lifted and certificate of occupancy restored in June 2025, after the previous owner, SMP Hospitality LLC, completed all the necessary building permits and life safety requirements, according to Building Engineer David Englund at the Aug. 10 city council meeting.

Roseville’s hotel license ordinance requires applicants to wait a year after a license is revoked to reapply. So the hotel remained closed. After it was sold to Rose Hospitality LLC, the new owners were able to submit a new application for a hotel license.

“As Rose Hospitality is a new entity, that previous denial had no bearing on their consideration.  In fact, they did not close on the property until June of 2026, so would not be in a position to receive a license until they owned it (and being code compliant),” City Manager Pat Trudgeon told the Roseville Reader.

The former owner, SMP Hospitality LLC, brought a lawsuit against the City of Roseville in October 2025.

A representative from SMP Hospitality LLC said in a written statement to the Roseville Reader, “The City’s actions concerning the hotel, including the circumstances surrounding the closure and licensing, are currently being challenged in pending litigation.”

Court proceedings are ongoing, with a Settlement Conference date set for February 26, 2027 and a Jury Trial date set for May 3, 2027, according to Ramsey County District Court records.

Key Inn becomes Roseville Inn

The Key Inn at 2550 Cleveland Ave N also recently rebranded to the similarly-named Roseville Inn. The Roseville Inn is owned by Diljit “DJ” Khosa, who also owns India Palace Grill and the recently opened DJ’s Breakfast Grill, located within India Palace. Khosa said the rename of the hotel is a rebrand and not reflective of a change in ownership. He also told The Roseville Reader that his hotel is not connected to the new owners of the Roseville Budget Inn.

Learn more

Watch the Aug. 10 city council meeting discussion about the hotel license approval decision: