After 140 years as a quarry, a massive piece of Mankato is about to transform

Jun. 26—Planners are about to provide the first high-level look at the potential future for a tapped-out quarry in the heart of Mankato — a dramatic landscape of pools, limestone cliffs and Minnesota River views equivalent in size to nearly 22 city blocks.

The next life of the unique piece of Mankato known as the Jefferson Quarry, which is being studied by a planning consultant in conjunction with the city and the quarry owner, is expected to focus on homes, townhouses and/or apartments.

"Based on location, surrounding land uses and market demands, housing is currently the main focus of new development," said Jim Voda of Pentagon Materials, which purchased the property a year ago. "We are also considering some mixed commercial use such as small destination shops, a restaurant or maybe some unique office space."

For well over a century, the Jefferson Quarry contributed stone for buildings locally and across the nation, performing its task in a way that also contributed noise, dust and — in a notable stretch of infamous blasting in 2017 — a citywide tremor that registered 2.8 on the Richter scale and flying rocks that showered an adjacent neighborhood.

Following that difficult summer, city officials suspended the mining permit for the site. Quarry explosives never boomed again and the site was sold in May of 2021. Now, municipal planners have the intriguing task of helping envision the next chapter for a truly singular piece of Mankato real estate.

"It's about 54 acres, so it's huge," said Courtney Kramlinger, an economic development specialist for the city. "It's a pretty unique location. It has the high walls that are limestone, and they're rough-cut. And it's really pretty — you can see the river in places."

Kramlinger, along with Communications and Engagement Director Edell Fiedler, are the city's representatives on a public/private team overseeing a quarry-redevelopment study being conducted by the consulting firm Stantec.

Throughout the process, community input will be sought — including reactions to the broad concepts being considered for the site, which will be unveiled at a public open house on Tuesday. A final land-use plan is expected to be presented to the City Council later this year, and Kramlinger believes the owners are eager to break ground on the quarry's transformation.

"I feel like it would be within the next year or two," she said.

A private matter

Ideas from Mankato-area residents have been collected since mid-May, with suggestions so far dominated by advocates of a regional mountain-biking park and other public facilities.

"Southern Minnesota lacks a mountain biking destination," one person wrote on the city's online public-engagement site, everyvoice.mankatomn.gov. "This could put Mankato on the map. There is a lot of potential in these abandoned quarries for outdoor recreation. Outdoor recreation tourism can contribute significant dollars to the local economy and small businesses."

Sixteen of 29 comments on the site mentioned mountain biking, with others suggesting a campground, an automotive racetrack, a nature park, a beach park with swimming and kayaking, and a park for ATVs, dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles.

Those offering the most ambitious proposals appear to be misunderstanding the nature of the redevelopment, according to those involved in the planning process.

While the site would be physically capable of hosting most of the suggestions, the land is not public property. So city leaders can't decide that it must be used entirely for a public purpose or mandate that it be transformed into a particular public amenity.

Pentagon Materials, a sister-company of Holtmeier Construction, paid $6 million for the various parcels making up the quarry and didn't make the pricey acquisition with the intention of donating the whole property as a public park.

That doesn't mean that there won't be substantial public benefits to the redevelopment, Voda said.

"For starters, we're eliminating an industrial site from the existing residential neighborhood and converting it to a more acceptable use," he said. "The study that is underway is intended to help determine the community's needs."

Even as a largely private redevelopment, the project is still unusual and interesting due to the size of the parcel, its central location, its distinctive appearance and its history, according to City Manager Susan Arntz.

"And we have a very willing property owner who wants to work with the community in deciding how to reuse the property," she said.

Joint planning

Developers typically generate concepts for a piece of property internally and make them public only when seeking city permits or land-use changes. Substantial delays can also occur in finding a new use for a languishing industrial or commercial property when it's still in the hands of the original owner, who might not have the financial resources or expertise to tackle the often-daunting transformation.

In the case of the Jefferson Quarry, the new owners purchased the property from Coughlan Quarries LLC — a firm descended from the original stonecutters that began selling the limestone in 1885.

Pentagon Materials almost immediately sought to work with the city and area residents to explore possible uses, according to Kramlinger.

"They wanted some assistance, some guidance on what those land uses could look like," Kramlinger said, noting that the cooperative strategy is one that can also serve to build municipal and community support.

But she said the public needs to be realistic about how many of the 54 acres will be made available to the general community: "The site will end up being a mixture of uses."

Parkland is definitely a possibility for a portion of the site, along with bike paths and public sidewalks.

"The scenarios we're putting together do include some greenspace areas," Kramlinger said, holding back on details prior to Tuesday night's meeting.

One highly likely element is a trail connection for residents of the Germania Park neighborhood. The residential area on the eastern edge of the quarry comes within about 600 feet, as the crow flies, of the city's Minnesota River Trail and its ties to the broader regional trail system. But the quarry, along with industrial properties on the opposite side of the neighborhood, have left Germania Park residents without easy access to the trail system and the state, county and municipal parks the bike paths lead to.

Even while not detailing the amenities being considered, Voda emphasized that the public and private elements of the redevelopment are intertwined — features that make the site attractive to the general public and draw visitors will also be appealing to investors, tenants and customers.

"We continue to plan on showcasing the unique natural features of the site that are currently not available anywhere else in Mankato," Voda said. "We're excited about creating a plan with a blend of public and private spaces that will attract developers and investors as well as serving public needs making this a place where people will want to live and enjoy the outdoor amenities."

The good and the bad

The Stantec study, funded with a brownfield grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, began investigating the site and the Mankato marketplace in March. Early findings include a determination that the quarry is safeguarded from river flooding by the berm that supports the bike trail, which sits about 8 feet above the 100-year flood plain, but that flood protection will still need to be carefully considered as the site develops.

Stantec also noted the challenge of extending utilities such as water, sewer and stormwater drainage into the area.

And access to the site is currently limited to an entrance from Cleveland Street, an east-west road that runs from Third Avenue to the quarry through an industrial area just south of Highway 14. That lack of visibility from driveby traffic makes the quarry a poor location for a traditional shopping district, although it could support destination-type retail such as restaurants or a micro-brewery.

The consultant listed "quality of place" and the volume and density of nearby housing as keys to the success of any restaurant or brewpub-type venture.

Stantec's preliminary development plan found that demand for office space is "extremely low in the short term" in the Mankato marketplace, although that could change in the longer term.

"Strongest demand is for housing of various kinds," according to the study.

Those various kinds could include working-class apartments, the luxury market or senior housing, and residential units could be anything from apartment buildings to lower-density townhouses.

As for community amenities, possibilities include a "public plaza connected with retail/restaurant," a water feature, "unique natural or open space," "access to the river" and more, according to Stantec.

Not surprisingly, the consultant came to one very basic conclusion about redeveloping a quarry: "Topography is both a challenge and an opportunity."

For people looking to see some initial concepts and provide opinions, Tuesday night offers the first widespread opportunity. The open house is in Columbia Park in the Germania Park neighborhood, but it's not just for the neighborhood, Fiedler said.

"This meeting will be wide open for the community," she said. "It will be come-and-go, although there will be a brief presentation at 5:30."

Following the meeting, the concepts will be added to the project's page on the city's Every Voice Mankato website where comments will be accepted.

The feedback will be incorporated into a more detailed plan during July with a follow-up public meeting tentatively slated for Aug. 4.

A more refined draft development plan will be put together in the fall and presented as a land-use plan to the Planning Commission and the City Council in the fall, Kramlinger said.