Nov. 20—A fast-growing handmade soap business just opened a Mankato store in the strip mall that contains Old Navy and Michaels.

Buff City Soap sells a variety of plant-based soaps and other items that are made daily in the store.

Franchise owner Chris Meyers said this is his 11th store, with the other 10 in Iowa. "There's been very rapid growth," he said of the company, which has more than 200 stores nationwide.

Buff City specializes not only in soaps, but also bath bombs, whipped body butter, stick lotion, epsom salts and laundry detergent.

"We're known for our laundry detergents," Meyers said. People can pick out any scent they find in the store to be used in the laundry detergent they buy.

The store will also host soap-making parties, including kids' birthday parties where they make colorful and fragrant bath bombs.

"We also have a lot of gift boxes. Holiday gift boxes are huge for us, and we have a lot of corporate gift boxes and stocking stuffers."

New business growth strong

Several other new developments are open or are nearing completion.

Scooter's Coffee on Madison Avenue, in the former Long John Silver's location, is open.

The Starbucks and Chipotle buildings, going up on Lor Ray Drive, next to Walgreens in North Mankato, are both almost all framed in as work has progressed rapidly on the project in the past month.

Sweet Spot, which has bubble tea and bubble waffles, is in the former Wysiwyg building at 527 S. Front St. in downtown Mankato. They offer a variety of bubble teas, ice cream and a bubble waffle with a scoop of ice cream.

Contender Esports is open on the east end of Madison East Center at 1400 Madison Ave. The gaming center offers 47 PCs, five Xboxes and 12 Nintendo Switches.

Froggy's Sweets & Treats, which had been in Le Sueur, is opening in downtown Mankato at 615 S. Front St. in the space formerly occupied by Union Market.

A new bank, commercial condos and business at the mall are also in the works or open.

New West Bank

West Bank came to Mankato in 2019 and has been housed in offices on Broad Street in part of the old Meyer & Sons building.

Now they are well into constructing a new bank near the Highways 22 and 14 intersection on Premiere Drive, North of Country Inn & Suites.

"It was always our plan to build a building," said Market President Tom Lentz. "You just need to build a base of business first. We found that property and it has great visibility."

They hope to be open by the end of June, barring supply chain delays. "So far it's been going good."

The bank will have a unique curved roof and modern design that was used in their banks in Rochester and St. Cloud. They are also planning to build in Owatonna. They have four banks in Minnesota and 11 total.

Commercial condos

A large development of commercial condos is underway on the far east side of Mankato.

Bill Freitag is leading the project along Madison Avenue, south and east of the new Mankato Travel Center truck stop.

He and business partner Dan Hawkes brought the first new commercial condos to Mankato about five years ago when they built Mankato Commercial Condos on South Victory Drive south of Stadium Lane.

Those were a hit, with the individual units purchased or leased by people who want a garage space and attached small office as they grow a new business that may have started as a home-based venture. Tenants include businesses such as landscapers who need a place to store trailers and equipment and have an office space to work out of.

The new ones under construction are a dressed-up version of the first condos he built, which featured metal siding.

"These are all-steel structures with stone on the exterior. They have a nicer look."

Eight of the units will be done by the end of this month and seven of the spaces are already committed to be sold. Next spring two more buildings will go up.

Eventually the development will have 86 commercial condo units in 14 buildings, totaling 130,000 square feet.

"It should be a good project," Freitag said. "There are all kinds of businesses looking for space like this."

More mall food offerings

River Hills Mall is adding three food businesses.

La Michoacana Mexican Ice Cream is opening in the former Dairy Queen spot. River City Eatery BBQ and Enchiladas El Gordo are located in the food court.

Mall Manager Robin Hanson said the mall now has eight of its 10 food spots filled.

The mall brought back Halloween festivities and trick-or-treating this year after having to cancel them during the pandemic.

The mall has also signed up several tenants that are leasing seasonal spots during the Christmas season.