Continued: Downtown Lakeville has something new in store

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PAN-O-PROG

Lakeville's 41st annual festival kicks into gear this week with Independence Day fireworks and a motorcycle cruise, boat parade and medallion hunt, among other events. For details, go to www.panoprog.org.

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Hockey players, ballet dancers, wine sippers, video gamers.

The crowd hanging out in downtown Lakeville this summer isn't quite the same as it was 10 years ago, or even two. But that's just fine with many business owners on Holyoke Avenue, who say the street has new energy just two years after the street lost its anchor grocery store.

When Enggren's Market closed in 2006 after a century in Lakeville, "A lot of people were very concerned that it was going to be an abandoned building, and nothing was going to happen," said Judy Tschumper, executive director of the Downtown Lakeville Business Association.

But as the city's annual Pan-O-Prog festival kicks into gear this week, the new owner of the former Enggren's building says he has a full slate of tenants lined up. A cluster of new businesses has set up shop in the past two years. And the city is getting ready to revamp a section of 208th Street at Holyoke Avenue to make a new home for outdoor events such as the weekly summer farmers' market.

"Before, downtown was kind of the draw, for the basic staples," said Steve Mielke, Lakeville's City Administrator. "Now it's your draw for specialty businesses."

A hockey training center started by a group of local dads in the former grocery store draws hundreds of players for lessons. Just down the street, dancers tie on their shoes at a studio built last year that also houses a candy store and -- starting this weekend -- an arcade. And the owner of the Mainstreet Coffee Cafe expanded this spring to add a bistro with a patio that's under construction out back.

Those who mourned Enggren's included many residents who live within walking distance of Holyoke Avenue. The store's closing put a cloud over downtown businesses, but as it turned out, "with that closing, there came an opportunity for some change," said Mainstreet owner Tracy Hummelgard.

Some credit real estate investor Mark Hotzler for part of the change. Hotzler, a Lakeville resident, bought his first downtown building in 1993. Now, he said he's invested $3 million or $4 million in half a dozen buildings and two parking lots in Lakeville, including the former Enggren's Mall, now called Holyoke Plaza. Downtown revitalization is something of a departure for Hotzler, who specializes in rescuing shopping malls in distress, from Minneapolis to Florida. But, he said, "It's home, you know, and it has an opportunity to be a unique historic downtown. It just needed a little bit of a kick-start."

Many of the new businesses fit in with a 2006 city redevelopment plan that envisions gradual change downtown, including more off-street parking and a move away from industrial uses along the Iberia Avenue railroad tracks.

The 208th Street market park, which will be funded mostly by the Dakota County Community Development Agency, also fits the plan. The $600,000 project will add 40 parking spaces and spiff up the street with landscaping and benches, making it suitable for Pan-O-Prog events, the city's satellite of the St. Paul Farmers' Market satellite and similar activities, said Dave Olson, the city's community development director. Work should start late this summer and wrap up in October, he said.

But for now, residents are enjoying the new vibe downtown.

"There's some synergy there," Mielke said. "The hockey parents are heading over and having a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while their kids are playing."

Sarah Lemagie • 952-882-9016