The Kahler Grand Hotel and Mayo Clinic's Franklin Heating Stationare planning to disconnect ending an 88-year-old relationship, though the details of the "uncoupling" are cloudy.
The hotel leadership confirms that the decision has been made to find a new source and stop using Mayo Clinic's station at 119 Third St. SW for power and heat.
"We are not unhappy with the Franklin Power Plant. We do understand that Franklin may be going through a power upgrade in the future that would affect the Kahler Grand," said Kahler Hospitality GroupChief Financial Officer Leslie Hohmann via email.
The breakup seems to be amicable from both parties.
"Mayo's Franklin Heating Station has provided utilities to the Kahler Corporation at cost in addition to sharing some common infrastructure expenses," wrote Mayo Clinic's Kelley Luckstein. "This is at a time when Mayo is also reviewing its future utility needs."
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KHG is making plans on how it will provide power to 95-year-old downtown hotel at 20 2nd Ave SW without the help of Mayo Clinic.
"We felt this would be a good time to transition to Rochester Public Utilitiesas we already purchase power for our other three hotels from RPU. These things have long lead times and nothing happens overnight," according to Hohmann. "We think, overall, our costs will be somewhat the same between Franklin and RPU."
Does that mean RPU is starting to work on connecting the Kahler Grand? It's hard to know.
"I'm unable to comment as it pertains to customer information, which is confidential," said RPU's Communications Coordinator Tony Bensonin response to questions on the topic.
While both side confirm this is happening, the timing of when this change will occur is still unclear.
"We do not have a definite completion date but would expect project work in 2017. There are a lot of other factors beyond our control that influence this," according to KHG's Hohmann.
