A Wisconsin developer has bought a parking lot in downtown St. Paul to build a new hotel.

The Raymond Group, which is based in Middleton, Wis., paid nearly $2.6 million for a surface parking lot on the corner of Jackson Street and E. 9th Street a couple blocks from Mears Park, according to an electronic certificate of real estate value available this month.

The Raymond Group plans to build a 185-room hotel on the site. According to city documents, the hotel would be a 10-story SpringHill Suites. The developer has not responded to requests to comment on the project.

Raymond Group bought the site from entities that appear to be associated with St. Paul-based PAK Properties.

Hennepin Co. spends $21 million on Thor’s new office building

Hennepin County invested about $21.5 million into Thor Cos.’ new office building in north Minneapolis.

According to recently available certificates of real estate value, Hennepin County paid $14.6 million for most of the stalls in the Regional Acceleration Center’s new parking garage and $6.8 million for the top floor of the office building.

Thor recently completed its four-story $36 million Regional Acceleration Center (RAC) on the corner of Plymouth and Penn avenues.

Thor has about 17,000 square feet of space in the RAC for its own corporate headquarters. Target Corp. also has space along with the Metropolitan Economic Development Association and several ground level retailers.

The 36,000 square feet that Hennepin County bought in the building will be occupied by nonprofit NorthPoint Health and Wellness, Hennepin County Health and Human Services and the county corrections department.

NorthPoint, which has a center across the street from the RAC, has plans for a $67 million expansion. The 420 spaces that Hennepin County bought in the new 620-stall parking ramp would also serve the NorthPoint center.

Hennepin County originally purchased the vacant land where the RAC was built from the city for $1.

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