Downtown apartment building seeks city permit
Apr. 18—MANKATO — Developers of a five-floor apartment building in downtown Mankato, complete with a heated parking garage and a fitness room, are moving forward with plans for construction.
The Jackson Park Apartments, which would be built on a portion of the Mankato Place mall, is now slated to have 44 units in an environmentally friendly building sporting balconies and an outdoor courtyard.
The number of units is down from 56 with the elimination of 16 efficiency apartments and the addition of a smaller number of one-bedroom units with dens.
"That seemed to be what the market wanted," said developer Gordon Awsumb, who is working on the project with the owners of Mankato Place. "I think it provides top-quality housing at a reasonable rent for folks."
Targeting downtown office workers who prefer city-center living, the $7 million building would approach 60,000 square feet, rising from the site of the former Red Rocks nightclub. It would stretch nearly to the Brett's Building and would include a small courtyard between that building and the new apartment building. A portion of the small courtyard would be reserved as an outside gathering area for tenants of the apartments, the remainder serving as a walkway to a new entrance to Mankato Place.
The ground level of the building would contain a health club and a heated parking garage with a Parkmatic mechanical system that lifts and lowers cars to allow 64 vehicles to be stacked three high in the confined space.
Four levels of apartments would cover the second through fifth floors, with balconies facing Jackson Park along Jackson and Second streets and other balconies overlooking the Cherry Street parking ramp or the Mankato Place roof. Technically, the building will be six stories when a penthouse for mechanical and elevator systems is included.
The developers aim to make the structure a "Zero Energy Building" under U.S. Department of Energy guidelines, meaning it will attempt to consume only as much energy as can be produced through renewable energy production such as solar. That means everything from high-efficiency heating and air conditioning to energy-efficient windows and solar panels on site, along with ongoing operational strategies to reduce energy use, said Awsumb, who believes the Jackson Park Apartments might be the first private-sector apartment building in Mankato to achieve the designation.
"What we're trying to do with the project is kind of cutting-edge in terms of energy efficiency," he said.
The motivation for creating a carbon-neutral building isn't altruism, he said. Instead, it's a bet that environmentally-conscious Mankatoans will be attracted to the idea of living in a green building and might be willing to pay slightly higher rents.
The development is expected to go to the Mankato Planning Commission as soon as this month and could be before the City Council in May for approval of a conditional-use permit and a ruling that it meets design standards for downtown buildings. If that approval is granted, the developers will follow up with yet-to-be-determined request for city tax-increment financing to help offset some of the costs of the development.
The TIF funding would be targeted at the added expense of providing parking for tenants in a downtown setting, which drives up the cost of the project compared to a similar apartment complex built on vacant land outside the city center.
Awsumb doesn't rule out the possibility of construction starting this year.
"It's really changed," he said of the economic outlook. "Last year everything was on hold and dead in the water, and now everything is busting loose. So I'm hopeful."
Awsumb and his partners also own development rights above the Cherry Street ramp adjacent to the site of the proposed apartment building and had plans prior to the pandemic for a three-story 117-room hotel over the ramp. That project remains a possibility in the future, he said.
"I'm trying to move forward with that hotel as soon as the market permits."
