Star Tribune: Rochester is in the midst of an apartment boom

Maine Heights will have 359 new units and will be built along Hwy. 52 in the southwestern part of the city.
Maine Heights will have 359 new units and will be built along Hwy. 52 in the southwestern part of the city.

A wave of new apartments opened in Rochester last year, and even more are planned this year with both suburban and downtown projects in the development pipeline.

It’s unclear whether the surge is just a normal upturn in the Rochester market’s building cycle or if it’s being spurred by the Mayo Clinic’s effort, with local and state help, for expansion. That development is called Destination Medical Center and has a goal to add 45,000 new jobs over 20 years to the city. Some apartment developers are specifically mentioning the Mayo’s expansion as a reason for investing in the market.

The city’s surge in new multifamily units — while small in numbers compared to the apartment-building binge in the Twin Cities — is impressive for sheer magnitude.

After adding an average of just 120 new multifamily units per year between 2011 and 2014, the city’s total of new units spiked to 1,156 in 2015, according to city building permit information. The new apartments added some $142 million in real estate valuation to the city, doubling the $72 million added via new single-family homes, the records showed.

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