Local entrepreneur’s company among top 100 in hotel management

The indoor water parks at Baxter and Elk River are each 30,000 square feet in size.

Lodge Hotels and Resorts also is a partner in The Links at Northfork, an 18-hole golf course, club house and banquet facility at Ramsey, Minn.

The company operates 1,111 guest rooms, manages approximately $93 million in hotel assets, employs more than 500 people and generated $24.5 million in revenue in 2009.

Lodge Hotels and Resorts finished 2009 with revenue of approximately $25 million. The company’s annual revenue has grown 1,700 percent since recording $1.5 million in sales in 2005, its first year of operation.

Rohde has owned The Lodge at Crooked Lake in Siren since 2001.

When the City Council rejected his attempt in 2003-04 to develop a hotel and water park at Hudson, Rohde took the project to the Brainerd Lakes area of Minnesota, where he built The Lodge at Brainerd Lakes and Paul Bunyan Indoor Water Park.

After starting Lodge Hotels and Resorts in 2005, Rohde recruited longtime business associate Joel Cairy of Burnsville, Minn., to join him as a partner in the hospitality development, management and consulting company.

Rohde is working on acquiring existing hotel properties in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota, and is planning to build a new facility in Wisconsin.

He says the recession has made it challenging to operate the company’s existing hotels, but has also provided opportunities on the development and acquisition side of the business.

“There have never been more opportunities to acquire additional hotels at extremely discounted values,” Rohde was quoted as saying in a news release that announced the recognition of his company in Hotel Business Magazine.

“We realized in mid-2008 that we would most likely see a period of deflated values over the next two to four years and started working on many of these deals 18 months ago,” Rohde said. “These assets are in great condition. Many just need a repositioning within their market and can be acquired for as little as 25 cents on the dollar.”

Lodge Hotels and Resorts is an approved partner with Hilton Hotels, InterContinental Hotel Group (including Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental Hotels and Hotel Indigo), Wyndham Hotel Corp. (including Ramada, Days Inn, Baymont Inn), Carlson Companies, Radisson, Best Western and Choice Hotels International (including Comfort Inn and Suites, Clarion, Suburban).

“I believe that hospitality asset growth in 2010-12 will provide hotel owners and operators some of the best equity play and quickest appreciation growth that we have seen in the last 20 years,” Rohde was quoted as saying.

Rohde is originally from River Falls. He has been in the hospitality business his entire professional career.

He is a graduate of UW-Stout in hotel and restaurant management.

After graduating from college, Rohde started his career with Hilton Hotels in Chicago at the Palmer House Hilton.

He worked for a number of different hotel companies throughout the country from 1989 to 2001.

In 2001, he purchased his first hotel and started the chapter in his life he knew he would always accomplish.

“I remember the first day on the job at the famous Palmer House. I arrived from college with less than $500 to my name and walked into the lobby of this 1,700-room, $350-million luxury city center hotel and immediately thought, How can I buy this thing?” Rohde was quoted as saying. “Obviously, that was unrealistic at the time, but I never stopped asking that same question.”

Rohde, his wife, Pam, and their three children have resided in Hudson since 2002. 

He says they love Hudson and hope to someday bring a unique hospitality development to the community.

Tags: industry, hudson, travel, minnesota, wisconsin