The owner of Minnesota’s oldest lodge is charged with burning it down to collect a hefty insurance claim after repeatedly texting his husband, “Just burn it,” prosecutors said.
Bryce Campbell, owner of once-beloved, 140-year-old Lutsen Resort along the shores of Lake Superior, was arrested this week, nearly two years after he denied any involvement in the devastating blaze that left only two chimneys remaining.
Campbell, 41, was inside the lodge around the time the fire started in the basement on Feb. 6, 2024 — and police believe it was a cash-grab for insurance before the business went under from debts of at least $14 million.
Days before the fire, Campbell, a Canadian national, texted with his husband about how they owed more than $466,000 to the Canada Revenue Agency.
“Just burn it,” he allegedly texted, a refrain he repeated in other messages about bad reviews.
Less than a week before the blaze, the resort’s general manager emailed Campbell warning that they didn’t have enough money to make payroll the following week, according to the complaint.
The owner had also just increased the insurance policy on the resort by about $4.5 million since 2022, authorities said.
He later submitted a $16.5 million insurance claim, citing “a fire of unknown origin,” the complaint says.
A search of his phone history, however, showed he’d searched for glycol, a type of alcohol, as well Swissmar, a type of accelerant that investigators later found traces of in the boiler room.
Campbell was arrested in Michigan without incident on Wednesday and is charged with arson and insurance fraud.
“In committing this selfish criminal act, Mr. Campbell considered his own personal benefit over the lives and livelihoods of the people he employed, while at same time destroying a treasured Minnesota landmark,” Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said in a statement.
Campbell bought the lodge and its assets in 2018 for $6.7 million, the complaint said. Around the time of the fire, he was some $14 million in debt and the business was floundering.
After people speculated that he may have been responsible, Campbell vehemently denied any involvement, saying he had poured millions into and claimed he had plans to rebuild.
“You don’t [expletive] torch a place and burn up $5 million of your money … Let’s use some common sense here, people,” he wrote to the Minnesota Star-Tribune at the time.
Lutsen Resort has been in operation for nearly 140 years, and boasts its the state’s oldest hotel.
The lodge that burned was built in 1952, after fire destroyed two previous facilities, according to the Star-Tribune.
