Marketplace project may move forward

The Waseca Investment group may be moving forward with development of the city-owned Waseca Marketplace property. The announcement came during the regular meeting of the Waseca City Council, Tuesday, August 20, 2024.

A few months earlier, the local investment group had come before the council saying it was unlikely to move forward with their project due to a lack of funding. At Tuesday night’s meeting, however, Tim Collins informed the council the group has made significant progress.

“I said we'll be back,” Collins told the council. “I can’t say thank you enough for this opportunity.” 

In February of 2023, the group came before the council with plans for a two- or three-story apartment and retail space at Waseca’s city-owned “marketplace location,” currently an open lot positioned between the Waseca Intermediate School and Walmart. At that time the group had raised nearly three-quarters of a million dollars en-route to their goal of $3 million. 

The group partnered with fiscal agent ‘REVocity, an investment group out of Northfield with more than 30 years of real estate investment experience; it has also partnered with numerous Waseca  businesses and individuals. 

Some of their general partners in Waseca include Tim Collins, who has 30 years of experience as a superintendent; Benya Kraus, co-founder of Lead for America, National and Executive Director of MN Affiliate; Madison Murphy; Matthew Potter, COO at iWealth; Jon Stagman, owner and president of Pantheon Computer; and Lauren Swanberg.

Members of the group were present to provide an update on the progress and also to ‘put on the council’s radar’ the date of the maturation of the existing right to purchase agreement which ends in September. 

The group said they had no ask as of Tuesday's meeting. They simply wanted to plant a seed of what an extension would look like. 

A lofty goal of a ‘shovel in the ground’ by spring was mentioned along with a three track plan to get there which focuses on financing, design and entitlements, and carrying out due diligence.

Representatives said their goal is to get the project in front of a lending pool and have a lender selected for a primary source of loan funds sometime between early October and the end of November. 

Following the approval of a loan, the group will come back to work with the city for a review process, which they hope will be completed by the end of the year. All of this would lead into the permitting process allowing construction to start when the frost comes out of the ground in 2025. 

“We have council meetings on the Third and Seventeenth,” said city manager Carl Sonnenberg. “The exclusive rights contract ends on the twentieth of September. That’s your timeline.”

“We feel good about it,” Collins concluded. “It’s gonna be great for the community.”