Capp Legacy Lives On In Renovated Hotel, Restaurant

Martin Capp became most well known in the St. Paul Jewish community for Capp Homes, the neighborhoods of small homes that were in more than 30 states right after World War II ended, when he sold it and pivoted to industrial warehouse spaces.

The cornerstone of the Sheraton Minneapolis Downtown Convention Center. (Lonny Goldsmith/TC Jewfolk)

Though he was never in the hospitality industry, he built two high-rise buildings called Capp Towers – one in St. Paul in 1960, the other in Minneapolis three years later – that were hotels. The Minneapolis version at 1313 Nicollet Mall, still owned by Capp Industries, recently reopened as the Sheraton Minneapolis Downtown Convention Center after a more than $40 million renovation project. 

The hotel, which had been the Millennium hotel for the past 24 years, had been fully closed during the renovation. The hotel leadership team –  including Martin Capp’s daughter and granddaughter, Lisa Capp and Susan Tervola, respectively, said that is unheard of.

“The marble fireplace (in the lobby) was original, and the brickwork was original,” said Tervola.

Said Capp: “We kept the good stuff.”

Austin Tyler-Thull, the hotel’s general manager, said enough was gutted that “you could see the bones” of the hotel. “We brought a 1963 hotel to the current age,” he said.

Retrofitting a 60-year-old hotel is not easy. The rooms couldn’t be expanded because the walls were concrete, and that would have required a different level of demolition.

“People were saying, ‘You know, the rooms are kind of small. We should make them bigger.’” Capp said. “No. We have concrete walls. The rooms are the rooms. There are things you have to consider in an older building.”

The building was slated to reopen April 1, which Tyler-Thull called “an April Fool’s joke on us.” The hotel actually reopened on May 20, and even that was ambitious, according to Aimbridge, the management company that Capp Industries contracted with. 

“The feedback was by far one of the fastest renovations [Aimbridge] ever experienced,” Tyler-Thull said. “They said: ‘There’s no way, but we’ll trust you guys.’ And then they were here for opening week, and it was actually happening.”

There was a pretty hard deadline that had to be met; Tervola’s sister was getting married there over Memorial Day weekend, and it was the first big event at the new hotel.

The brickwork and style throughout the new lobby – only the fireplace survived the renovation – and in the new Esther’s Table restaurant, is a staple of Martin Capp’s construction style.

“If you look at the St Paul JCC or Temple of Aaron, they all have bricks. Not a lot of windows, but a lot of building material,” Susan Capp said of the two St. Paul institutions where her grandfather found inspiration. “He really loved the material of it and the structure.”

The author’s breakfast at Esther’s Table: Spinach & Tomato Egg Wrap in a
lavash wrap with tomato confit and feta cheese, and roasted potatoes on the side. (Lonny Goldsmith/TC Jewfolk)

Esther’s Table is named after Capp’s mother, Esther, who passed away in 2017. The mid-century modern decor fits with the brickwork of the outer walls. The idea of simple, unpretentious food appealed to Capp and Tervola.

(Editor’s note: This isn’t a food review, but the breakfast was excellent and prices on the menu were quite reasonable, especially for a hotel restaurant. If you want a food review, I highly recommend this one from Minnesota Monthly.)

“This is named after Esther, and she was not pretentious,” Tervola said. “She was a home cook. She was incredibly hospitable, bringing [Jews immigrating from the Former Soviet Union to the U.S.] off an airplane into her house. Our table was always full. I mean, she’s a Jewish grandma; it was always about the food.”

The restaurant name isn’t just an ode to Esther Capp’s unpretentious cooking, but to a life of philanthropy in the Capp’s support of the St. Paul Jewish community and the Minnesota community more broadly. (Editor’s note: The Martin and Esther Capp Family Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation is a generous funder of Jewfolk, Inc.)

“Some people want their name on everything,” Tervola said. That wasn’t her grandparents’ style. “They didn’t donate for the recognition. And Esther didn’t just ask other people to participate; she did the work.”