Mayo giving $1M facelift to Madison East

Sep. 24—MANKATO — Work is to begin next month on a $1 million exterior upgrade to a nearly 300-foot segment of the former Madison East shopping mall, spiffing it up and rebranding it as Mayo Clinic Health System-Madison East Center.

"We want to make sure the physical environment reflects the quality of care that will be offered there," said Dr. James Hebl, regional vice president for Mayo. "... It will create a welcoming environment with landscaping and improved pedestrian access."

Mayo has offered a variety of care out of the former mall for years, but it is currently investing $10 million in the location to move its diagnostic imaging department there.

The addition of the 10,000-square-foot radiology facility will bring the total square footage leased by Mayo at Madison East to 74,000, moving it ahead of the Eastridge campus as Mayo's second largest location in the Mankato area behind the main hospital and clinic off of Main Street.

"We've kind of maximized our facility space here," Hebl said of the hospital location.

Moving outpatient care to Madison East also allows space at the main hospital campus to be reserved for future expansion of hospital beds, something that can't be added at remote locations.

"For efficiency, we need to have our inpatient care at a single location," Hebl said.

While diagnostic imaging is the single largest component of the Madison East campus, it's far from the only one. The site is home to physical therapy, occupational therapy, the weight-loss clinic, bariatric surgery, cosmetic and plastic surgery and more.

The Mankato Clinic is also a major tenant at Madison East, offering mental health services, dialysis and other care. Handi Medical Supply is a prominent tenant on the eastern side of the facility, facing Victory Drive.

"That's what we're seeing even nationwide — the repurposing of malls for a variety of different uses," said Mankato Community Development Director Paul Vogel.

But until recently, the building has still looked pretty much like a shopping mall. Less than a decade ago, the health care facilities were bordered by an Aamco Transmissions auto center, an appliance store and a business products store. Since then, Rasmussen University, which has a large nursing program, has relocated to Madison East.

The south-side facelift being financed by Mayo joins a modernization of the Madison East exterior on the eastern and northern sides by the property's owner. Work currently underway on the northern side of the mall, facing Adams Street, will match the look of the eastern face of the building along Victory Drive, which was modernized as part of a 2019 building expansion.

"Now we're working on the facade on the north to get that more cohesive look," said Cate DeBates of Coldwell Banker Commercial Fisher Group.

Mayo's exterior project — the addition of large windows and stone, creation of a patient drop-off area, planting of hundreds of shrubs, perennials and trees, construction of new canopies, placement of benches and tables, and aesthetic lighting at night — won't necessarily match the other facades on the building, but it will evoke the medical organization's design style.

Mainly, though, it reflects Mayo's commitment to the Madison East campus.

"We've got other major investments on the horizon as well," Hebl said. "But at least in 2021, this was probably one of the largest investments across the Mayo Health System in the Upper Midwest."

The growing Mayo presence at Madison East will provide increased flexibility in how the constricted space at the hospital is used in coming years. In addition, workplace changes prompted by the pandemic — with many Mayo office and administrative employees now working from remote locations — have reduced pressure to provide more parking at the hospital. That also gives Mayo more options for future construction there. A comprehensive master plan for the Mankato hospital site is being developed.

Excessive parking spaces may be a novelty around the hospital and clinic, but largely vacant parking slots have been the norm at the 53-year-old Madison East since its retail fortunes plummeted with the opening of River Hills Mall in 1991. The facility is surrounded by a treeless expanse of aging asphalt that's largely unused because the new tenants don't draw the same crowds as retail stores once did.

"That center is almost completely fully leased," DeBates said, adding that a yet-to-be-announced tenant has recently agreed to occupy one of the new spaces created in 2019 next to Handi Medical Supply.

Some blacktop was replaced with a bit of grass when a new roundabout entrance was added to the Madison Avenue side of Madison East, landscaping and parking lot improvements were made with the 2019 project on the Victory Drive side, and more parking upgrades and green spaces are planned for the future, DeBates said.

City planners will be glad to see the vacant parking lots put to better use, too — at Madison East and at other former retail locations.

"We're looking forward to that occurring with the mall properties as they repurpose them," Vogel said.

The Mankato Planning Commission reviewed Mayo's exterior plans Wednesday night to ensure they match city design standards, which aim to "create a positive first impression upon entering the City and to establish an image and character that is uniquely Mankato's." The City Council is expected to approve the project Oct. 11.

Construction is to start in the second half of October, Hebl said. Interior work on the $10 million diagnostic imaging center has been ongoing since last spring, and the diagnostic imaging center remains on schedule to open in January.