urbanMSP

Owatonna has a pleasant downtown, as David Levinson recently found out:
https://streets.mn/2013/12/16/main-street-owatonna/

That may be but Faribault and Northfield have many more historic buildings with greater potential.

There's no doubt about that.
Faribault: https://streets.mn/2013/12/02/8770/
Northfield: https://streets.mn/2013/07/29/northfield/

Northgate Apartments in downtown Owatonna has opened.

Background:
http://www.southernminn.com/owatonna_pe ... a7f1a.html
http://www.southernminn.com/owatonna_pe ... 9d903.html



Northgate Apartments, Owatonna, MN by Matt Steele, on Flickr

Northgate Apartments, Owatonna, MN by Matt Steele, on Flickr

Owatonna's looking at preemptively upzoning their downtown to allow heights of more than three stories by-right. Cool!

Hi everyone, it's my first post here. I typically post updates on Rochester in SkyscraperCity forums, but today I want to give you all an update on one of my other favorite small towns in SE Minnesota. Owatonna has been seeing really great growth in the past couple years, not only in in-fill development, but also in walkability, schools, pedestrian friendliness, historical restoration / adaptive reuse, and forward looking industry and manufacturing. In my opinion, they are infilling their downtown even better than Rochester is. And their economic prospects are really looking up as large employer and businesses have moved or expanded their presence in Owatonna.

This article sums up these developments nicely:
https://tcbmag.com/owatonna-at-the-cros ... rossroads/

Here are downtown infill projects from just the past 4 years, in addition to the Northgate apartments recently posted here

Downtown Marriott Hotel (Built 2022) Downtown Vine St Apartments (Built 2018) Downtown The Pearl Apartments (Built 2022)

And what's also encouraging, is that there are more projects in the pipeline, and it seems the city is extremely pro-growth.

Riverfront Apartments (Proposed) Ascend Apartments (70 units with commercial base along riverfront, breaking ground spring 2023)

http://steeledodgenews.com/owatonna-riv ... me-changer

The updated downtown has also massively improved their walkability, with expanded pedestrian sidewalks, bike lanes, reduced car lanes, and of course, more outdoor dining spaces, benches and areas for trees and native shrubs and grasses. The renders shown here were done by ISG, but construction is complete as of summer 2022 and looks great. They used to have a live downtown cam but they took it down so renders will have to do for now:

Owatonna has also recently started re-using its historic structures that have sat either vacant or completely neglected for the past couple decades. Here is a before and after of the former Jerry's restaurant in the city's historic Adsit Block, built in the late 1800s. These buildings are getting updated for commercial and residential reuse. A new Italian restaurant will go where Jerry's once was:

BEFORE: AFTER: Another nice thing Owatonna has gotten recently is a new high school, which is finishing this year

Thanks for the great update!

https://www.kimt.com/news/omc-opening-n ... 88578.html

I guess Owatonna will be getting an OMC Clinic. A lot of people don't know know this but OMC is very good. They have had to be on their game to compete with Mayo in Rochester. OMC employs about 1400 people in Rochester, across 3 decent sized clinic buildings, so this should bring some good jobs to the Owatonna area.

The famous Jerry's is torn down and replaced with a new Italian restaurant. The entire block received a facelift. Love to see historic building fabric preserved.

No pics, but the 70 unit Ascend Apartments is also under construction currently, with Mineral Springs Brewery and OMC as commercial tenants

Some short articles that suggest good things for Owatonna:

https://krfofm.com/owatonna-grows-into- ... minnesota/

https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-s ... 600327899/

and a progress update on Ascend - I've heard rumors there are more apartment buildings coming downtown as well:

Owatonna is a well-positioned city. Near enough to Rochester, Mankato, and the Cities to serve as a satellite, but not so close as to be subsumed.

In the last few years, the Census recognized that Owatonna is part of the MSP combined statistical area. Its future is, apparently, bright.

Owatonna is a bit overrated. I prefer Faribault. It is more historic and much more scenic and just as well positioned and has a lot going on as well. It is also closer to the metro. Shattuck/St. Mary's is gorgeous as well as the entire east side. Just my 2 cents.