Photo by Clay Schuldt Gov. Tim Walz speaks at the grand opening for the new Minnesota National Guard Armory, Monday.

NEW ULM — The city has been home to the Minnesota National Guard Armory for 110 years, and with the completion of a new and modern armory, it will continue to serve as the guard’s home for another century.

Monday, a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the new armory, located at 2100 Palmer Avenue. The new armory is 40,374 square-feet and features classrooms, a fitness center, a learning center, LED lights, solar panels, and a hybrid heat pump mechanical system. Construction began on the new facility in April 2024. The new facility supports training, readiness, and state and federal missions for the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment. The readiness center houses approximately 20 full-time staff and 240 drilling soldiers, serving as a hub for training, coordination, and emergency response.

The grand opening ceremony was attended by Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Rep Brad Finstad, New Ulm Mayor Kathleen Backer and Maj. Gen. Shawn Manke.

Manke thanked the city of New Ulm for the hospitality it has shown the Minnesota National Guard for over a century. The previous New Ulm armory was constructed in 1915 on the 200 N. Block of Broadway.

“The entire New Ulm community has supported the soldiers of the Minnesota National Guard,” he said. “Your involvement today demonstrates the community support for over 100 years and is hopeful for the next 100 years.”

Manke also credits New Ulm with supplying the land for the new armory and the field maintenance shop located on the same site.

“We could not be here with the support of the community of New Ulm,” Manke said.

Walz spoke on the need for the new facility. He is a former National Guard Member who served with the 1-125 Field Artillery and has memories of working out of the former armory.

“We told ourselves we were lucky to be serving in such a historic building, that’s the way we talked about it because it certainly wasn’t functional,” Walz said.

He reminded the crowd that the original armory was constructed three years before the U.S. entered the first World War and now the new facility was the most modern in the state and possibly the country.

“We owe it to our warrior, to the men and women of the Minnesota National Guard, to give them the best equipment, the best training and the best possible way to complete their mission,” he said.

Walz said during the earlier discussion for building a new facility, there was no guarantee the new armory would be located in New Ulm. He said it spoke to New Ulm’s unwavering support for the National Guard that kept the facility in the community.

“I think you would be hard-pressed to find any community in America that is more supportive of its National Guard,” he said.

Walz thanked Mayor Kathleen Backer and her predecessors for making this possible. He said that at the same time New Ulm was pushing to have the new armory built here, the city was campaigning for the expansion of U.S. Highway 14 and managed to get both completed.

Walz believes the new armory will be utilized by the New Ulm community for decades to come.

Klobuchar thanked her fellow legislators for their support in making the armory a possibility.

The $15 million in funding needed for the facility came from a combination of local, state and federal sources. She described the development of the facility as a model for future developments.

Klobuchar thanked all the members of the Minnesota National Guard for their service. She said that it is up to the public to provide support. It is the reason the legislators worked hard to create the new facility to help execute their mission of keeping the public safe.

She said the new facility is 40,000 square feet in size, compared to the previous armory that was 11,000 square feet and over 100 years old.

“To say this is a big improvement is minimizing the change,” Klobuchar said. “The improvements you made here are an investment in this region and an investment in the future of the Minnesota National Guard.”