Rochester's downtown landscape will change as Mayo Clinic's development plan rolls ahead

Jeff Kiger, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·4 min read

Jun. 9—ROCHESTER — Mayo Clinic's plan to invest billions to create a health care center of the future will be built on

six blocks of downtown Rochester's past.

Mayo Clinic leaders introduced a very early look

at its "Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Rochester" initiative this week. Most details, like the number of buildings, timeline for construction and the estimated cost were not available.

However, development initiative leader Dr. Craig Daniels did map out where this plan will change the look of Rochester from the ground up.

The plan centers on redeveloping several sites in downtown Rochester, including the former Lourdes High School property and the Ozmun complexes, to create new ancillary and clinical buildings.

When asked if any of the existing buildings on the Mayo Clinic-owned spaces marked on Daniels' map would be retained or re-developed, he was clear that demolition crews will have work to do in every area.

"In that bird's eye view that we've given you is where we plan on new space," he said referring to the blue-marked map of where Mayo Clinic plans to build.

Here's a rundown on what stands there now.

The non-clinical

Mayo Clinic administrative complex

that includes Ozmun West, Ozmun Center, Ozmun East and

a parking ramp,

stands at Second Street Southwest and Fourth Avenue Southwest. It sprawls between Calvary Episcopal Church and the Co-Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

The building was renamed for Kenneth Ozmun, a major benefactor to Mayo Clinic and a Rochester native. The Ozmun family first settled in the Rochester area in the 1880s and 1890s, but Kenneth and brother Donald became successes manufacturing display advertising products in Chicago.

The Ozmun sites were built off of the kernel of the former Olmsted County Courthouse. Mayo Clinic purchased the courthouse on a Contract for Deed deal with the county in 1993 for $10.1 million.

Mayo completed paying off the purchase

in 2013.

Mayo Clinic employees started working there in 1994 when the construction of the Ozmun East building and its parking ramp were completed. The complex has housed a variety of non-clinical departments over the years. Dan Abrams Healthy Living Center was based there until the current Healthy Living Center was built.

Mayo Clinic uses the 10-story, 347,000-square-foot parking ramp at 15 Third Ave. SW for both patients and employees. It was built in 1990.

Mayo Clinic bought the 136,000-square-foot former Lourdes High School building at 621 W. Center St. for $5.8 million on June 27, 2013, from Lourdes Development Inc.

The school had moved to new digs on 19th Street Northwest earlier that year. Parts of the former Lourdes complex date back to 1941.

It has remained unused and untouched since Mayo Clinic purchased it. Mayo officials say issues with asbestos and flooding mean the building will be demolished instead of renovated.

This 74,000-square-foot surface parking lot used by Mayo Clinic employees is located between First Street Northwest and Second Street Northwest.

Mayo Clinic purchased the Lot 29 property in 2010

for $3.9 million.

This closed, 62-room hotel with an adjacent parking lot is located at 20 Fifth Ave. NW.

The classic travel lodge-style hotel was built in 1965 as a place for patients to stay near Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic purchased it in October 2010 for $3.7 million from

Brentwood Annex LLC,

a firm led by the legendary Rochester commercial Realtor and developer Ed Pompeian. An arm of the late Pompeian's RGI firm managed the hotel for Mayo Clinic through 2021 until it closed.

Mayo Clinic bought

the rambling Travelers Hotel

at 426 Second St. SW. for $1.7 million in 2001.

It kept the old hotel in operation until 2016.

In 2019, it was demolished

without any announced plans for its future.

Julius Reiter and Billy Friedell originally separately built the two buildings that were later combined to become a single hotel.

Reiter, a five-term Rochester mayor and one-time vice presidential candidate, built the first building in 1918. It initially provided small apartments for transient visitors. Friedell, a former circus musician turned developer, built a neighboring hotel between 1927 and 1931. It catered to single women in the city.

That now open site is tucked into the block that is otherwise occupied by Mayo Clinic's Baldwin Building and its parking ramp.