Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

Carleton College has invested in downtown Northfield for many years.  The college has supported groups and events that contribute to the downtown’s vitality, college staff and students have given of their time and talent through volunteering for organizations and initiatives that work for the downtown’s vibrancy, and the entire college community has significantly and positively impacted the downtown economy since its founding in 1866.  Now the college is taking their investment to a new level. (more…)

Next Tuesday, May 1st, from 2:30 to 3:30, Al Franken, Senator from Minnesota, will be at the Historic Archer House River Inn, to kick off Northfield’s PACE program.   He will be joined by Matt Anfang, of the St. Paul BOMA, and Leota Goodney, of Leota Goodney Certified Public Accountants, who will talk about the recent solar panel project on her commercial building in downtown Northfield, MN.

PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy and it’s a project that Councilor Erica Zweifel, working with the state Chamber of Commerce’s Energy Smart program, brought to Northfield.   It’s one way to finance energy cost reduction projects, along with private equity and lending, and the Xcel rebate programs.

Erica, along with Jill Curran of Energy Smart, have set up this program to kick off PACE, and encourage Northfield business and building owners to reduce their energy costs, with Leota leading the way.   You all are invited to learn more about these energy cost-reducing ideas.   Coffee and cookies will be served.

The NDDC is a non-partisan, non-profit community organization dedicated to the vitality of downtown Northfield.  For more information, contact Executive Director Ross Currier at 663-0319 or rcurrier@nddc.org.

The City of Northfield and Streetscape Task Force will host a Public Open House and Input Gathering Session on Monday, January 30th, 5 to 7 p.m., in the Riverview Conference Room of the Archer House, 212 Division Street.

This is the second in a series of three open house events for the public. The first session focused on the seven Gateway Corridor Areas identified for study. These Areas were the western portion of Highway 19, the eastern portion of Highway 19, the southern portion of Highway 3, the northern portion of Highway 3, Highway 246 at the south of town, Highway 23 at the northwest of town, and County Road 78 at the west of town. Initial concept drawings can be viewed and downloaded from the City’s website:

At this session, the project’s design team will present some of their initial ideas. These ideas include landscape plantings, streetscape treatments, pedestrian walkways, trail links, and bike routes and lanes throughout the project areas as well as at major intersections along the corridors. (more…)

Carleton College, St. Olaf College, and the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC) met down by the river.  The purpose of the event was to kick off a multi-year, interdisciplinary series of college-community collaboration projects.  One of the first scopes of work is computer modeling the Cannon River, so it made sense to meet down in the valley between the two hills.

The Cannon River Modeling and subsequent projects are the result of work by the NDDC’s College-Community Collaboration Committee.  Formed in 2010 in response to comments made by St. Olaf President David Anderson and Carleton President Steven Poskanzer, the committee initially focused on mutual-marketing leverage and cross-promotional efforts.  In 2011, it added alumni recruitment as another strategy.  One of the key tactics in this work will be to engage undergraduates in meaningful community projects. (more…)

Remember my post on TIF District #4, the Streetscape Task Force, and Downtown Parking?  Yeah, it was rather long and dense.  Just for the moment, focus on the Streetscape Task Force.

One of the two dozen or so projects that the Task Force has recommended to the City Council is the so-called “Gateways(s)” Project.  Although the actual project areas encompass substantial corridors related to these so-called gateways, the focus, at least initially, was on potential improvements at key locations along the city’s main roadway entrances. (more…)