In Case you hadn't noticed

As alumni return home for Luverne’s All School Reunion this week, they may notice new developments in their hometown, including the $30 million school improvement project.
Weekend tours of the school will include the new performing arts center, new commons, kitchen and media center and updates to the 1956 high school building.
While the new district building will be a main attraction for former students, the community itself has several areas of improvement to boast.
 
Fareway coming to Luverne
One of the more visible developments is the Fareway meat market construction at Main Street and Highway 75 opening this fall.
The company also negotiated an option to buy city-owned lots across the intersection (near the liquor store) for a brand-new stand-alone meat market store.
While the Fareway construction is most conspicuous, downtown Luverne has several significant business updates, and alumni would do well to tour other parts of town to see millions of dollars of new development.
 
Premium Minnesota Pork
Premium Minnesota Pork is building a $70 million processing facility that will add nearly 100 more jobs in Luverne’s industrial park near its current pork processing facility along County Road 4 west of town.
The expansion marks a significant investment for the company that already spent $30 million in 2019 to expand the 78,000-square-foot building to 145,000 square feet.
Following a 10,000-square-foot, $7 million cooler addition, the once shuttered IBP property is now a 4,000-hog-per-day operation that employs more than 450 workers.
 
Luverne puts $14 million into wastewater improvements
PMP negotiated a wastewater treatment agreement with the city of Luverne to improve the city’s water treatment capacity.
The city, which was already planning to refurbish its 1950s equipment, approved a $14 million wastewater treatment plant construction project, and Premium Minnesota Pork agreed to pay for nearly half, $6.7 million.
With Luverne’s plant improvements, PMP is guaranteed a 300,000-gallon-per-day treatment capacity, which accommodates higher production goals.
 
Lineage announces $50 million construction of cold storage warehouse
Lineage Logistics is building a 235,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse near Premium Minnesota Pork (which will store its products in a portion of the facility).
The warehouse, with an estimated construction value of more than $50 million, will be roughly the size of four football fields and built to store food products requiring temperatures ranging from minus 20 to minus 45 degrees.
Lineage has indicated it will create up to 75 new “quality paying” jobs in the area to support the operation.
 
National Guard breaks ground on $17.5 million Readiness Center
Minnesota National Guard is building a $17.5 million Luverne Readiness Center on 15 acres west of Papik Motors along I-90.
The new 47,902-square-foot facility includes assembly halls, work bays, storage areas, classrooms, a learning center and fitness center with locker rooms.
The project received more than $6.2 million in private funds from the KAHR Foundation of Luverne native Warren Herreid II and his wife, Jeanne Rivet.
Their support accelerated the project timeline, influenced the decision to locate the new armory in Luverne, and financed an additional assembly area in the facility.
The facility is expected to be operational in 2023.
 
PrairiE Loft apartments
As local development increases, so does demand for housing for workers and their families.
In a long-awaited help for local housing shortages, an October 2021 ground-breaking set the wheels in motion for two 27-unit apartment buildings known as PrairiE Loft I and II.
The $8 million project (on the former Sharkee’s and Mert’s Repair lots) is named with a capital E for “environmental sustainability and smart building practices.”
The two buildings have one- and two-bedroom market-rate rental units on three floors with elevators and off-street parking.
They’ll be ready for occupancy this fall with rents ranging from $900 to $1,450 per month.
 
City sells 157 housing lots
Meanwhile, city leaders have created other housing opportunities.
For example, 157 city-owned lots have been developed since 1994 in the Veterans, Evergreen and Manfred Heights additions on the northeast side and Sybesma Addition on the west side.
New townhomes were built on Barck Street, along the west side of North Blue Mound Avenue, on Roundwind Road east of the pool and fitness center and in the Uithoven Addition on the west side of town.
Several future lots are planned in the Lopau Addition northwest of the Good Samaritan Society -Mary Jane Brown Home.
Also, the Schmuck Addition near the hospital was recently annexed for four more lots. Those utility connections will access 400 acres to the north for future residential growth.
 
Day care center
As state and national child care shortages continue to stifle business growth, Luverne leaders announced late in 2021 they’re tackling the issue with a day care center that would serve the needs in Rock County and surrounding area.
The city paid $515,000 for the former Tri-State Insurance Building (recently Total Card Inc.) on Roundwind Road to develop a community day care center in it.
The 1974 building (just north of the pool and fitness center) has 30,000 square feet on 4.7 acres of land, which would provide adequate outdoor “green space” required by the state for day care centers.
The city is seeking funding sources for necessary retrofits and remodeling estimated at $1.5 million as well as furnishings and equipment at roughly $2.5 million.
The intent is for the city to own, maintain and insure the building, and a commercial or non-profit day care business will operate in it.
 
Pool and Fitness Center
The Luverne Area Aquatics and Fitness center reopened this spring after completing a $5 million remodel and expansion.
Improvements include an outdoor splash pad, new locker rooms, four family changing rooms, flat space rooms for group aerobic exercise, new office space and staff area, larger rooms for 24-hour weightlifting and aerobic exercise machines and a new mechanical and heat, ventilation and air-conditioning system.
Membership fees were increased slightly, but the city of Luverne subsidizes the facility’s operations as a “quality of life” amenity for residents.
 
Loop and Ashby Trail
While the facility was closed for construction, members worked out on cardio equipment that moved temporarily into the city’s trailhead building at Main Street and Blue Mound Avenue.
The city bought the former Casey’s building as a trailhead for bicycle repair stations, public restrooms and electric car charging stations.
The Luverne Loop path connects to the Blue Mound Trail for 13 total miles of hard surface riding and walking between the city and the Blue Mounds State Park.
The final portion of The Loop is nearly finished along the Rock River south of the wastewater treatment plant to connect with the existing trail behind the Econo Lodge hotel on South Highway 75.
The Loop intersects with the 1.95-mile Christopher Martin Ashby Trail funded by Gene and Barb Ashby in memory of their late son.
The Ashby trail starts near the Rock River and winds through the city park toward County Road 9 near the Luverne Country Club.
 
Walleye Wind farm
An out-of-town but significant local development is the 109-megawatt Walleye Wind Farm in western Rock County.
NextEra is building 40 wind turbines on a 49-square-mile (31,000 acres) footprint, bringing more than 200 workers to Rock County communities and businesses.
Starting this fall, the turbines will generate $400,000 to $600,000 in annual local tax revenues and feed electricity to the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency through a 30-year agreement.