For years, the former Oak Ridge Hotel & Conference Center in Chaska has been better known to police than to guests, drawing more than 100 calls for burglary, trespassing, property damage and other criminal activity at the long-vacant site. Now the sprawling property along McKnight Lake is on track for a dramatically different second act: a $40 million Nordic spa and hotel development that cleared a major local hurdle this week.
The Chaska Planning Commission unanimously approved a concept plan on Wednesday for a new hotel and Nordic spa at the site, according to Bring Me The News. The proposal is scheduled to go before the Chaska City Council for concept review next week. Behind the project is Scandvik Hotels, a Canadian-based development company that specializes in Scandinavian-style wellness hotels and outdoor Nordic spas, led by Founder and President Travis Batting.
The redevelopment would transform the 22-acre property into a 130-room hotel featuring a traditional spa, a restaurant and lounge, conference and event spaces, and large outdoor Nordic spas offering thermal bathing experiences. Those outdoor spaces will include saunas, steam facilities and relaxation spaces, per the outlet's reporting. Batting said the project would be the first Nordic spa of its size in Minnesota, and described it as a place that offers, in his words, a chance “to pause in a stressful world.”
A Corporate Campus Built for Financial Advisors, Not Vacationers
The building itself has a much different origin story than the wellness retreat now planned for it. American Express originally built the 171,000-square-foot conference center in 1987 on 46 acres in Chaska as a dedicated corporate training center for financial advisors and a corporate disaster recovery site, according to court and SEC filings tied to the property's history. The hotel and conference center is not abandoned and remains private property, but it closed permanently in September 2020 and has not been open to the public since.
In 2022, the City of Chaska approved the broader Oak Ridge Commons master redevelopment on the surrounding corporate campus, which brought in a Costco store and the 280-unit Springs at McKnight Lake apartment complex while leaving the core hotel and conference center building vacant for future reuse. That gap between what got redeveloped and what didn't is exactly what turned the remaining structure into a magnet for trouble.
Vacant Building Became a Trespassing Hot Spot
The former Oak Ridge Hotel & Conference Center site became a hot spot for urban explorers and illegal activity in the years after it closed, according to the Bring Me The News report. As recently as August 7, the Chaska Police Department arrested two people who trespassed on the property. Police have said the property is monitored by live surveillance cameras, and that anyone entering the building will be identified, located and charged with burglary, trespassing or criminal damage to property.
That enforcement message has also circulated on social media, where a public safety post from Limitless Production Group has warned residents to stay away from the site while it remains fenced off from the public. The persistent trespassing problem is part of what makes the proposed redevelopment notable beyond its price tag: a building that has drained police resources for years could instead become a functioning commercial property.
Groundbreaking Targeted for Next Summer
If the concept plan clears the Chaska City Council, workers are expected to break ground on the development next summer, with the Scandvik Hotels & Nordic Spa in Chaska projected to open in 2028. The project is expected to create about 100 permanent jobs once it opens, turning a persistent public safety strain into an active commercial tax producer for the city.
Design plans call for preserving the existing building complex while constructing the primary outdoor Nordic thermal bathing pools, steam rooms and saunas along the property's western edge, fronting McKnight Lake, according to The Development Tracker. The Chaska project isn't happening in isolation for Scandvik Hotels, either. The company is simultaneously developing an 80,000-square-foot Nordic wellness resort with 127 guest rooms and a 40,000-square-foot spa at the Willows golf course in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, according to CBC News, with that project set for completion in late 2028.
Part of a Bigger Wellness Boom
Chaska's Nordic spa plan lands amid a broader surge in North American thermal wellness investment. The U.S. sauna market generated $197.6 million in revenue in 2024 and is projected to grow at a 5.3% compound annual rate to reach $311.4 million by 2033, driven by rising interest in contrast therapy and outdoor thermal bathing, according to research from Topture. Seniors aged 55 and older made up a 27.4% share of the sauna tourism market in 2025, the fastest-growing demographic seeking cardiovascular and joint health benefits, while adults under 25 are fueling contrast therapy trends on social media, per Dataintelo.
Chaska's project also isn't the only vacant institutional property being eyed for this kind of transformation. Hoodline reported on a similar $40M spa plan in Kenmore, Washington, where developers unveiled plans in July to convert a vacant historic seminary pool house at The Lodge at St. Edward into an outdoor Nordic thermal spa. Together, the two projects suggest developers increasingly see forgotten institutional buildings as ready-made bones for the wellness tourism boom, provided cities are willing to sign off on the concept plans that get them there.
