Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

Bono and the boys

There were many mentions of Richard Florida’s book The Rise of the Creative Class at the NDDC’s March Forum. I was familiar with the book but after the Forum, I thought I’d just head over to the Public Library and check out a copy.

As I flipped through the pages, I was dismayed with the great number of charts and graphs. So I skimmed through until I found something that looked interesting to me, Chapter 16, “Building the Creative Community”.
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Artspace Projects, Inc., represented by President Kelley Lindquist and Project Manager Andrew Commers, met with the joint NDDC-NAG Arts, Recreation and Culture Committee this morning.

In his opening remarks to the group, Lindquist was clear that Artspace has not walked away from the project. Artspace was under the impression that their development agreement was going to be cancelled and only wished to respect the decision of the community.

With the recent statements by the School Board and Carleton College, Artspace is continuing to work with the Northfield arts community on a community arts center that will serve student artists, emerging artists and mid-career artists.
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The Northfield Community Investment Fund, a $1.5 million pool intended to assist development and redevelopment projects in Northfield, is up and running. The final signing of the documents is taking place two floors over my head at this very moment.

The Fund was originally the brain-child of the NDDC. Founders Brett Reese, Bardwell Smith and Jim Braucher, along with long-time supporter Dixon Bond, knocked on a few doors several years ago with the vision of spurring investment and redevelopment in downtown. The potential participants preferred a community-wide approach and the baton was passed to the Northfield Enterprise Center (NEC) about two years ago.

The fund participants are Carleton College, St. Olaf College, First National Bank of Northfield and Community National Bank. Each entity has contributed capital to create a community-oriented investment fund.

Seated at the table from left to right: Dave Shumway, First National Bank of Northfield; Alan Norton, St. Olaf College; Lynda Grady, NEC; Don Kuenhast, Community National Bank; Steve Meyer, Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly; Fred Rogers, Carleton College; Joe Hargis, NEC.

Although the fund is now community-wide, the type of challenging projects that it will support, those sometimes difficult community-building projects that push the typical bank’s envelope, are often located in downtown. The NDDC is excited about the potential for this new fund.

We thank Carleton College, Community National Bank, First National Bank of Northfield and St. Olaf College for their creativity and courage.

The former Medicap Pharmacy at the corner of 6th and Water Streets has been renamed Northfield Pharmacy and Custom Compounding by owners Rob and Karen Anderson, . This is a result of the Andersons buying their franchise from Medicine Shop, the owners of the franchise. As the Northfield News reported in a story last week,

With the buyout, Northfield Pharmacy & Custom Compounding has become a locally owned and operated pharmacy, a unique position in a community where competition has more than doubled in the past five years.

A second storefront sported new signs within the last week. KYMN Radio 1080 AM has been in the Medical Arts Building at 2nd and Division for some time, but just installed signs on the building to prove it. Station Manager Ned Newberg was a guest presenter at the NDDC Downtown Forum in February. Congratulations, Ned!

It was the buzz on the street Tuesday, it was a front page article on Wednesday, and it was the editorial on Saturday…the NDDC’s Downtown Forum on Winona was big news this past week.

I attended both the Forum on Tuesday morning and a coffee and pie gathering with the participants on Monday night. I took some notes on what I thought were key concepts from Winona’s efforts and I will attempt to share them here.

Blood does coagulate. Eric Sorenson stressed this point many times. I believe that he was trying to share the message that sometimes communities need to “have it out” or “take it to the mat” and get their messy differences out on the table, argue passionately and then make a decision and move on. He also said that we should remember that we all need to live together the next morning.

In Winona the “blood was spilled” over whether or not to save their historic downtown. Some members of the community believed that those old buildings weren’t worth saving. Once that big battle was settled, the community focused on four things:

- Historic Preservation
- Investing in Downtown
- Mobilizing the Arts
- Embracing the River

I believe that Northfield is beyond that stage in many ways. We have preserved our historic buildings and are investing in downtown. The Arts Guild has been mobilized for almost 50 years. We’ve got the Riverwalk and are planning on extending it.

Personally, I think that the aspect in which we lag behind Winona is that of partnership, groups within the community working together. Perhaps in our fears of spilling blood or flying fur, we never get beyond our initial disagreements to the point where we can actually work together to achieve shared goals.

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