If your travels take you along Second Street Southwest in downtown Rochester, you might have noticed that a familiar business near the Mayo Clinic campus has closed.

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That's right, the Travelers Hotel, located just west of Mayo Clinic's Baldwin Building has apparently folded up shop and ceased operations. How do I know this? The "closed" sign out front was a clue; I noticed it on my way into the station earlier this week.

But, it turns out I'm not the first. According to this Post-Bulletin article, the Travelers -- which is owned by Mayo Clinic -- closed sometime in January of this year.

The article, from February 4, 2016, says, "Mayo owns the Rochester Travelers Hotel building, just west of the Baldwin building at 426 Second Street Southwest. The hotel, part of which dates from 1931, is apparently closed and there's no word yet on what Mayo plans to do with it."

But wait, there's more. In a follow-up Post-Bulletin article, this time from February 8, Mayo Clinic responded to a query on why the Travelers had closed. According to the story, a Mayo spokesman said,

"Travelers Hotel on Second Street Southwest closed in January 2016. Mayo Clinic purchased the Travelers Hotel property in 2001. RGI Lodging has continued to operate Travelers as a low-cost hotel option for the past 15 years. Two other hotels also managed by RGI (the Second Street Inn & Suites and the Fifth Avenue Inn & Suites) have unmet capacity, are in the same price range and are newer facilities. The Travelers Hotel is an outdated building with outdated building systems and appropriate renovations would be cost-prohibitive. Mayo Clinic has no current plans for the facility or the land."

So there you go. But, seeing as the land is located right in the middle of the Mayo downtown campus -- an area rife with new DMC developments -- there must be something being considered for it, even if there isn't a concrete plan right now. What do you think those plans might be?

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