Photos by Deb Gau The new apartment building taking shape in Marshall’s downtown is one of the more visible developments in the city in 2022. Marshall EDA Director Lauren Deutz said the city saw new rental housing built in the past year, but still needed to encourage more housing development.

MARSHALL — The past year has been a busy one for development in Marshall: a pair of big construction projects got underway downtown, a few new businesses arrived or announced plans to build on East College Drive, and several existing local businesses had significant expansions.

“Overall we had a good year on both the development and redevelopment side,” said Marshall EDA Director Lauren Deutz. While Deutz said there are still some challenges ahead, it was positive to see development happening in all areas at once.

Deutz recently spoke with the Independent about development in Marshall in 2022, and looking to the future. She said there have been some positive developments in both housing and commercial property.

“We made good progress on our rental housing shortage,” she said. The third phase of the Nexus apartments on Legion Field Road opened this year, and construction on new downtown apartments has been going on since this summer.

The apartment building taking shape at the corner of West Lyon and First Street came after years of preparation work on what the city of Marshall called “Block 11.” Deutz said the development project on the block is now named Block 100. Deutz said the apartment building was planned to open this summer.

The project was a long time coming, said Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson. Years before the Block 100 development got started, the city began acquiring vacant or transitioning properties on the block, and clearing the land for possible future use.

The goal for Block 100 developers Coldwell Banker Commercial Fisher Group is to construct a total of three mixed-use and apartment buildings. The first building under construction will be apartments only, with more than 30 units.

In 2022, “We also saw more construction of single family homes, but nothing near where we need to be,” Deutz said. “That continues to be a top focus area for the EDA, and limits us on bringing new residents to town.”

Expansion and redevelopment

There were a lot of commercial development projects in Marshall in the past year, including several existing businesses expanding, Deutz said. Businesses including Border States Electric, North Central International, Wayne’s Tractor Repair, and Northwest Farm Management all had expansions.

“Ralco also had a huge year, with the redevelopment of a partially vacant downtown building, a warehouse expansion and the opening of the Jon Knochenmus Center for Innovation,” Deutz said.

Ralco renovated 52,000 square feet of space in the New Atlantic Hotel and Landmark Mercantile buildings on Main Street. Part of the building became new corporate offices for Ralco, and a new events center, The Upper Room, had its official opening in December. The former Bello Cucina restaurant space is being renovated into a new restaurant, Atlantic Place.

New businesses have also taken an interest in East College Drive, Deutz said. Earlier this year, Qwik Trip announced it would be building a store at the corner of College Drive and Bruce Street. Dollar General also bought land and built a new store along College Drive.

Another important development in 2022 was the reopening of the clinic building on Carlson Street, Deutz and Hanson said. Avera Marshall Medical Center and Rural Health Care, Inc., started out the year by partnering to open Access Health – Marshall at the Carlson Street campus.

The collaboration brought a Federally Qualified Health Center with discount programs to help meet area residents’ health care needs to Marshall. It also helped ensure that a specialized building would not be empty, Hanson said.

A sale of land near the Red Baron Arena and Expo in December could also set the stage for future development in Marshall. The new owners of the property are looking at possibly building a hotel and restaurant, Deutz said.

Hanson said having more lodging available will be positive as sporting and other events grow in Marshall. Hanson said the Red Baron Arena and Expo had its highest-ever usage in 2022, with approximately 3,911 total hours of rental use.

Possible redevelopment for some large Marshall properties may still take some time, Deutz said. The new owners of the former Shopko building still plan to turn the property into a retail shopping center, with more than one tenant, she said. However, there isn’t a clear timeline yet for that development.

Another property facing some uncertainties is the Market Street Mall, Deutz said. A potential developer had shown interest in the mall, but they were still looking at different options for site plans to engage potential tenants, she said.

Shopping malls are challenging to redevelop, Deutz said.

“Retailers don’t like that layout anymore,” she said, and the large buildings are expensive to maintain.

Looking to the future

Some of the work Deutz does to help attract retail development in Marshall goes on behind the scenes.

“We reach out and start conversations,” she said. Marshall area residents have frequently asked about bringing retail businesses like Target to town. Deutz said she has reached out to Target regularly, just to keep awareness of Marshall’s interest.

“It’s not that we’re not trying,” she said. However, different retail chains may want different things in a potential location.

Marshall has some drawbacks in attracting new businesses.

“We’re still seen as a pretty small community,” Deutz said. But at the same time, it has positives including its location and position as a regional center.

Marshall draws in people from a wide area for shopping and events, Deutz said. That shows through data like the amount that the city has collected in sales and use taxes and food, lodging and beverage taxes. While the amount collected decreased in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, We are starting to see our numbers come back,” she said.

Marshall went from collecting around $1.5 million in sales and use tax in 2020 to more than $1.7 million in 2021, said Marshall city finance director Karla Drown. Food, beverage and lodging taxes collected went from about $505,000 in 2020 to about $652,000 in 2021.

From January through September 2022, the city collected over $1.4 million in sales and use tax and over $562,000 in food, lodging and beverage tax, Drown said.

Deutz said Marshall had a good year for development in 2022.

“But we believe 2023 will be even better,” she said. “We are seeing a lot of interest in our area across several industries, and we are focusing on addressing our gaps.”