Minnesota briefs: St. Cloud launches downtown grant program

The St. Cloud Economic Development Authority (EDA) is launching two new grant programs to help downtown business owners and to increase curb appeal.

The Main Street Economic Revitalization Grants are state-funded grants that cover as much as 30% of a project up to $750,000. Funds can go to construction, planning, demolition or renovation. Applicants will receive priority if the projects revitalize properties affected by pandemic-related events in the past two years, support small businesses or advance further investment in the corridor, create affordable housing or support services such as child care, or enhance opportunities for minorities, women, veterans and other protected classes of entrepreneurs.

The downtown exterior improvement grants will be funded through the EDA, which will provide a 50% matching grant for costs up to $10,000 per property. The projects must be permanent exterior building or landscape improvements visible from the public right-of-way.

Eligible commercial properties must be within the downtown commercial corridor, which goes from Cooper Avenue to Lincoln Avenue and is about four blocks wide. Applications will be accepted through Sept. 23, with grants awarded in December.

JENNY BERG

DULUTH

Essentia's new

Essentia Health's $915 million Vision Northland project — which includes a new hospital and expanded clinic space — is now 80% finished with completion expected at the start of 2023.

Staff will be trained for the new space during the first half of the year. A 18-story, 344-bed hospital tower maximizes natural light and includes 36 different fritted glass patterns in windows to protect the bird population.

The new campus — at one time the second largest hospital construction project in the country — has 25 operating and procedure rooms. The single occupancy patient rooms are larger than those at the current hospital. There also are more rooms designated for intensive care to prepare for any future pandemics. In addition, a central elevator system speeds access from the rooftop helipad to the ER and operating rooms. The campus, at 942,000 square feet, has a smaller footprint than the existing St. Mary's Medical Center, which will be demolished.

The site uses space more efficiently to eliminate travel time for caregivers, said Essentia CEO Dr. David Herman. "It was designed to make it as easy as possible to provide the care that patients need," he said, which should help retain and recruit new medical professionals in a time of shortages across the health care industry.