Downtown Demolition & Redevelopment; Next Phase
The Owatonna City Council approved the purchase of two more homes on Pearl Street at last night’s meeting. That brings the total to five homes purchased on that block that will be demolished to make way for a new 33 unit apartment complex.
At the meeting Steve Nicolai, Nicolai Builders spoke about his companies 35 year history in the apartment building business which includes over one thousand apartments they have built mainly in Wisconsin. This project will be a brick building, the apartments will have decks and there will be a fitness center and community room. They plan to start construction this fall.
Troy Klecker, Community Development Director for the City of Owatonna referred to the councils top priority of downtown redevelopment as part of the reason for this project. Tax Increment Financing (TIF) will be used to pay back the city for the cost of the homes and site preparation.
This is the second redevelopment project to take shape in 2017. The former Arnold House was recently demolished to make way for a new Ace Hardware building.
Members of the chamber public policy committee have a goal of attending 90% of the city council meetings and county commissioner meetings. Why? To make sure we know what our elected officials are discussion and how those decisions could impact business. Until this point, our reporting has been back to our committee, but it was decided that we should share this with the membership.
