BMNA Weighs Letter of Support for Fruen Mill Redevelopment

The long-vacant Fruen Mill on the edge of Bryn Mawr is headed for a new life as a hotel, restaurant and spa under developer Greg Koch, co-founder of California-based Stone Brewing.

Koch bought the mill at 303 Thomas Ave. N. in 2023 for about $500,000. On May 6, 2026, the Minneapolis Planning Commission approved his plan to remodel the building for future build-outs that the site plan describes as a hotel, restaurant and spa, and to establish a bar on the third floor.

The approval caps years of trouble at the site. Sitting on Bassett Creek next to Utepils Brewing, the mill became a magnet for graffiti taggers and urban explorers, drawing scores of emergency calls; in one 2021 incident a woman fell two stories onto concrete and firefighters had to cut through a steel gate to reach her. Koch has already begun remediating hazards on the property.

Redevelopment along Bryn Mawr's industrial edges has long been a delicate subject in a neighborhood that prizes both its history and its quiet, park-bordered character. The hotel plan touches both nerves at once, promising to rescue a landmark while raising questions about traffic, scale and commercial use. Those concerns ran through the neighborhood association meetings and the watershed and city reviews the project has already passed, including a request for a letter of support that such proposals seek to ease their path through city review.

[unverifiable: the original article framed this as the Bryn Mawr Neighborhood Association weighing a letter of support; a BMNA letter is referenced in Bassett Creek Watershed records, but the specific meeting and vote could not be independently confirmed.]