Gundersen Hotel and Suites now officially open

Council granted hospital permission to tear down city block for parking  

A new hotel on South Ave. in La Crosse was designed to provide a service to Gundersen Health System patients and offer more lodging for local visitors.

But Gundersen CEO Scott Rathgaber also sees the $10 million Gundersen Hotel and Suites as an example of what La Crosse neighborhoods can do to improve themselves.

“We’ve had trail expansion going on, pedestrian lighting, new single-family home construction in the neighborhood,” Dr. Rathgaber said at the hotel’s grand opening Thursday. “This is all part of that momentum and this hotel is another step.”

Rathgaber also said the building fits in well with other improvements to the neighborhood, such as new housing for doctors.

“This is an anchor project that I hope shows the rest of the community what we can do in other parts of the city, as well as this neighborhood,” he said, adding that the hotel could not have been built without a strong partnership with La Crosse City Hall.

In building the new hotel, Gundersen needed the city council’s permission to tear down a city block to build an additional parking lot.

The city granted Gundersen permission for the block between 8th and 9th at Denton and Tyler streets but only for five years.