Lease with HyLife to house workers at Norwood Inn ends

Jun. 5—NORTH MANKATO — After more than two years of housing employees from a Windom pork processing plant, the former Norwood Inn, which is owned by the city of North Mankato, is no longer housing the workers.

HyLife notified the city recently that it was giving its 30-day notice to end the lease with the city. The lease was initially for two years but the city agreed to extend it for six months, with the lease ending, at the latest, in August.

The end of the lease formally clears the way for a major redevelopment planned for the property.

In February, local developers Max DeMars and Marty Walgenbach, partners in the 1111 Holdings of Mankato, announced they have an agreement to buy the property at 1111 Range Street, which was the former Norwood Inn/Best Western hotel. The city purchased the hotel property after it had been plagued with problems and complaints.

HyLife used its option to end the lease slightly earlier than the lease would have expired after the pork slaughtering plant it operated was closed last Friday. More than 1,000 employees, including up to 200 workers who stayed at the Norwood, were let go.

City Administrator Kevin McCann told the City Council at its work session Monday night that there was only one person left in the Norwood Inn as of Monday.

Residents had posted photos on social media over the weekend of piles of garbage bags stacked up outside the Norwood. McCann said a waste removal company is removing the refuse and said most of the inside of the building had been cleaned out.

He said paying for the waste removal was HyLife's responsibility but said that with the company in bankruptcy protection it was uncertain if they'd ultimately pay the bill.

McCann said HyLife has paid its monthly lease to the city through May of this year.

The HyLife workers, mostly from Mexico and South America, have to leave the country now that they no longer have the jobs they came here for.

In an auction finalized last week, an Iowa pork producer bought the bankrupt Windom plant from HyLife with a bid of $13 million but said it would not keep any of the plant's employees.

The proposed redevelopment of the former Norwood, on a prime corner on Webster Avenue and Range Street and along Highway 169, earlier received a conditional use permit from the City Council.

The developers plan to create a 120,000-square-foot mixed-use development that would include 75 one-bedroom apartments and commercial and retail space.

The apartments will come from converting the 150 former hotel rooms, using two rooms to make one apartment.

New retail space would be added at the front of the building and new retail space would be added along the Webster Avenue side of the building. There are, as of yet, no details on tenants for the commercial and retail spaces.

The developers have purchase agreements to buy the liquor store on the corner of Webster and Range Street, which would be demolished and replaced by another standalone commercial building.

They also have a purchase agreement on a vacant lot between the Norwood Inn and Plaza Jalisco restaurant (former Perkins).

The developers are proposing that the lot will become a future hotel. It would be built along Range Street, facing Highway 169, in the northeast corner of the property.