Owatonna

[mattaudio]

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

[uptowncarag]

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

[mattaudio]

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

[mattaudio]

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

[Silophant]

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

[Ociee117]

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)

owatonna marriot.jpg

Downtown Vine St Apartments (Built 2018)

owatonna vine street.png

Downtown The Pearl Apartments (Built 2022)

owatonna the pearl.png

[Ociee117]

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)

owatonna river front.jpg

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

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

6377f9af2d0f6.image.jpg

owatonna ascend apartments.jpg

[Ociee117]

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 pedestrian imporvements.jpg

owatonna pedestrian imporvements 2.jpg

[Ociee117]

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:

jerry's before.jpg

AFTER:

jerrys after.jpg

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

owatonna new school.jpg

[MNdible]

Thanks for the great update!

[Ociee117]

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.

[Ociee117]

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

[Ociee117]

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:

[thespeedmccool]

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.

[Emerson Uptowner]

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.

[Ociee117]

https://www.keyc.com/2024/06/04/owatonn ... ty-center/

They are pushing for a new multi-use community center, potentially downtown. There are a ton of vacant buildings and empty lots still, so could be a great addition to filling in the core.

https://www.southernminn.com/owatonna_p ... 68924.html

The new Ascend apartment has topped out and will likely wrap up this summer. A few more apartments on the way around Owatonna as well. Good stuff.

[EOst]

https://www.keyc.com/2024/06/04/owatonn ... ty-center/

They are pushing for a new multi-use community center, potentially downtown. There are a ton of vacant buildings and empty lots still, so could be a great addition to filling in the core.

It's an interesting community design problem because downtown Owatonna has a ton of parking lots and some vacant areas as well, but very few of them are large enough that they scream "suitable for a community center." Obviously it depends what level of facility the city ultimately decides on, but you would probably need about a half of one of those downtown blocks, either closing off the alley or (potentially) taking more or less the entire length of one side of a block.

[Ociee117]

https://bit.ly/4iOfbIL

According to this business letter, Owatonna will be getting two new apartments, one on Bixby Rd to the east, and another downtown along the riverfront, about the same scale as the Ascend I development, but slightly smaller. With this building, almost all the riverfront will be occupied by dense(r) housing.

As a lot of America seems poised to be take losses with recent tariffs, I wonder if Owatonna, being so heavily centered on manufacturing, isn't uniquely positioned to take advantage of them.