Dear Answer Man, what's going on with the block across North Broadway from the Kemps ice cream plant? That would make a great location for a new public library!
Very funny. The Rochester Public Library is absolutely not interested in moving.
The block in question is between Civic Center Drive and Fifth Street Northwest, from North Broadway to First Avenue Northwest. On the west side of that block, they're building the Flats on First apartment project , which I wrote about in December. It'll be a four-story, 68-unit apartment building directly across from one of Rochester's culinary landmarks, Cheap Charlie's.
I was telling my wife about Flats on First the other day and she thought I was talking about a shoe store.
The rest of the block is still up for grabs, but the site has been cleared and readied for development. That's where MLT Group had its offices; they're now at 4481 Highway 14 West, N. Frontage Road, Suite 3.
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Big investment for Oronoco
In Friday's masterpiece , I told you about the new data center going up in Oronoco. That data center is not to improve computer functions for my ever-growing worldwide readership, as some have guessed. It's for C. H. Robinson , the Eden Prairie-based Fortune 500 company that describes itself as "one of the world's largest third-party logistics provides," which means they provide freight transportation and logistics. "To meet our customers' freight needs, we provide access to 68,000 transportation providers worldwide, including contract motor carriers, railroads, air freight carriers, and ocean carriers," the company's website says.
Strangely, I couldn't find an answer to a simple question before deadline Friday: How much is the data center worth? Nichole Axtman, the company's communications specialist, helped me out later that day: "The estimated cost of the building is $15 million to $20 million," and work should be finished by the end of the year.
With that much money involved, you can see why Albert Lea, Owatonna and an unnamed Iowa city were competing with Oronoco for the project. Oronoco coughed up $752,000 in tax increment financing to carry the day.
