St. James Social shines spotlight on downtown Bayfield

Bringing a 140-year-old building back to life

Everyone thought the eyesore of a building in downtown Bayfield should be torn down.

Just two blocks from Lake Superior, in a highly traveled tourist area, the former St. James Hotel had definitely seen better days. Built in 1884, the two-story, Italianate building at 200 Rittenhouse Ave. had gone through a revolving door of incarnations. At the turn of the 20^th century when the railroad came into Bayfield, a saloon welcomed visitors on the main floor and offered hotel accommodations upstairs. In later years, at various times, the building housed a drug store, numerous food and beverage establishments, and even an art gallery.

But for nearly three years, the storied structure sat vacant—gutted, abandoned, with no operating water or electricity.

“It was the most blighted corner in downtown Bayfield,” says Annalisa Bermel.

And then she and her husband, Cody Bermel, did the unexpected. They bought the shabby, rundown structure. With two years of hard work, and help from mentors and believers, they turned the historic building into a jewel: St. James Social—a hotel, restaurant, and social lounge.

Fulfilling a childhood dream

Annalisa and Cody grew up in the Minneapolis area; they met when they were 10 years old. Annalisa and her family had vacationed in Bayfield since she was a child, and she felt a strong attachment to the region. When she and Cody married 10 years ago, they held the ceremony in Bayfield. Three years later, Bayfield became their home. Today, they have two young daughters and two dogs.

During their first years in Bayfield, Annalisa—who has a master’s degree in real estate development—worked for a developer; her expertise was design and marketing. Cody worked in construction, building roads and infrastructure. Eventually, they decided to take the leap and branch out with a project of their own.

“We decided that we will do this together and fulfill a dream, creating a legacy for our family in this place that we love,” Annalisa says.

Rejuvenating the St. James, however, would be more than a leap—it became a tremendous challenge. How would they, newcomers to the redevelopment community, be able to obtain financing? Who could they hire for construction? Annalisa thought those doors would close on them. But to her amazement, they didn’t.

Bremer Bank loaned the couple money, and Greiner Construction in Minneapolis became the general contractor. Annalisa had worked with Greiner on a previous project in Minneapolis, transforming a historic building into the Hewing Hotel.

The St. James project carried an estimated price tag of $4 million. With a loan and equity investment from Bremer Bank, state and federal historic preservation tax credits, federal Property Assessed Clean Energy financing for renewable energy upgrades, gap funding from Duluth-based Entrepreneur Fund, and a $250,000 Community Development Investment Grant from WEDC, the finances came together.

“They had the equity; we had the sweat,” Annalisa says.

Before construction crews could rebuild, they had to tear down. They stripped the 10,000-square-foot structure down to the studs and added foundation support, new plumbing, a fire suppression system, new electrical wiring, and a 17-kilowatt solar power system. New floors were installed, new windows, insulation, and siding, and a commercial kitchen was added.

“We had to replace everything except the skeleton. Every surface was touched or reinforced,” Annalisa says.

They did manage to keep one architectural gem: hand-hewn wood beams that had been milled right there in Bayfield. To complement the beams, they located reclaimed wood from around Wisconsin and installed it in the restaurant’s lobby.

“We were recreating what this hotel had been 140 years ago, putting the windows back into their original configuration and exposing the original floor joists,” Annalisa says.

Drawing national kudos

The Bermels signed the purchase agreement in January 2022, and St. James Social’s hotel welcomed its first guests in August 2023. The restaurant opened in December, and a grand opening for the entire building was held June 1, 2024.

St. James Social has eight boutique hotel rooms on the second floor, with an 18-person sauna, a coffee and tea bar, and a rooftop lounge for hotel guests with views of downtown Bayfield and Lake Superior. The first floor houses the restaurant, a small retail space, and a bar and social lounge where the community is invited to gather. Paintings by local artists grace the first-floor walls and guest rooms. In a nostalgic nod to the past, record players offer music in each guest room, with albums from Annalisa’s grandfather’s collection, and a record player in the lobby lounge plays albums donated by the community.

The rejuvenated hotel is gaining attention. Condé Nast Traveler mentioned St. James Social in an article on “The 23 Best Places to Go in the U.S. in 2023” and Midwest Living magazine named it among the Best of the Midwest 2024.

The CDI Grant from WEDC was a “huge” step toward making the project a reality, Annalisa says. “As a small business, every piece of that capital stock mattered so much. Each puzzle piece gave more confidence to the next. People wanted to be part of it because they were not taking as much of a risk.

“WEDC saw what the project could do for a small community, and it was validation for everyone else. We spent it all on one construction draw, but it was important. It allowed us to leverage equity up front and not pay construction interest before we needed to.”

Now complete, the hotel feels like a dream come true, Annalisa says. “It’s like everything has prepared us for this project and everything feels right in its place. Our family takes a lot of pride in the important fingerprint we are able to make on this community through hospitality for generations to come.”