Star Tribune
DMC plans to spend $40M this year, adding to its $200M total spent on downtown Rochester
ROCHESTER — Destination Medical Center, the state-funded initiative to turn this community into an international medical hub, has spent or designated close to $220 million to improve the downtown area over the past eight years.
Most of that money — about $135 million — has come from state general infrastructure funding or transit aid according to an annual legislative report DMC officials reviewed Thursday with the agency’s corporate board of directors.
The remaining money comes mostly from Rochester, while Olmsted County has kicked in close to $20 million.
DMC is on track to receive even more money from the state this year, thanks to significant private investments made in the area. The agency is set to receive another $30 million in general funding from the state this year, the max annual amount designated by the Minnesota Legislature when it created DMC in 2013.
DMC is also on track to meet its goal of $5.6 billion in private development by 2033, mainly due to Mayo Clinic’s downtown Rochester expansion over the next few years. DMC has already garnered $1.5 billion as of 2023.
DMC Executive Director Patrick Seeb pointed to Mayo’s expansion — the biggest hospital development in state history — as the result of years of work DMC has done to attract biomedical businesses to Rochester.
“That’s what we were established for, is to create the environment where Mayo Clinic could see this would be a place to grow,” Seeb said.
Mayo was the driving factor behind DMC’s creation, encouraging lawmakers in 2013 to fund its $585 million request to transform Rochester and threatening to look elsewhere to grow if Minnesota didn’t step in.
Help for downtown district
DMC is set to spend about $40 million in 2024, a quarter of which is set aside from projects that crop up during the year — such as a request from the city of Rochester to provide financial support for building owners in a new downtown historic commercial district.
The Rochester City Council approved the district earlier this month, largely on the promise DMC officials would offer financial aid to property owners affected by the extra costs and projected tax increases as part of the new district.
“This district is providing a community benefit and they are disproportionately burdened,” Council President Brooke Carlson said.
Seeb said DMC officials will present a funding plan before the corporate board at its May meeting.
A chance to boost housing?
At the same time, DMC could present plans for expanding housing help as board members and city officials worried over Rochester’s lack of housing.
Former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, a DMC corporate board member, said was in favor of using DMC and larger city tools such as tax-increment financing to incentivize more development as Mayo looks to attract thousands of employees over the next five years.
“I have not advocated using public money to support market rate housing. This may actually be a moment to do that,” Rybak said.
DMC officials also outlined the agency’s role in the campaign for federal grant dollars to make Minnesota a medical technology hub. DMC will oversee sharing Mayo Clinic research data with members of the Minnesota MedTech 3.0 consortium as it competes for tens of millions of dollars this year with other states looking to create tech centers of their own.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
ST. CLOUD – On Tuesday, St. Cloud voters will be asked to make decisions on a new fire station and moving city elections to odd years, and — for those who live in Stearns County — how to fund a new county jail.
Here’s a look at the three referendum questions that are on St. Cloud-area ballots this year.
Ballot question: “Shall Stearns County be authorized to impose a sales tax & use tax of three-eighths of one percent to finance up to $325 million, plus associated bonding costs, for the construction of a justice center facility, consisting of law enforcement, judicial center and jail? The sales tax would be used solely to finance construction, upgrades and financing costs for the justice center and remain in effect for 30 years or until the project is paid for, whichever comes first. These services and facilities are mandated by the state of Minnesota to be provided by counties.”
Stearns County officials are planning to build a new $325 million justice center complex that includes a 270-bed jail, a judicial center with courtrooms, and a law enforcement center that houses the Sheriff’s Office. In the summer, Stearns County board members voted to move those facilities out of downtown and to a new location with more space. That site has yet to be determined.
The question before voters is how to fund that center.
County Administrator Mike Williams said a common misconception he’s heard at recent town halls is residents think voting “yes” gives permission to the county to build the facility, and if they vote “no,” the county won’t spend the money to build it.
“People [think they] are voting on the project — and they’re not. They’re voting on how we are going to fund it,” Williams said.
If voters approve the ballot question, the county will impose a sales tax to fund the project. If they vote it down, the county can instead pay for the project with property taxes.