Although
it was listed in official HJ directories before the Company's
demise, the hotel was not an authentic Howard Johnson's
at all. The downtown hotel only wore the HoJo name for a year
or two during the middle 1980s whilst the Company was desperately
trying to create some new wönder-concept to stave off
its inevitable end. The hotel was neither converted to meet
typical standards nor did it offer a Howard Johnson's Restaurant.
Prior
to its brief stint as a HoJo, the site was a 300 room Sheraton.
It later operated as the Minneapolis Plaza and then the Ritz
Hotel before being leveled to make way for a parking lot by
the middle 2000s. |