Listen to this articleA 114-year-old factory that once produced handheld pesticide sprayers is back in business along the Hastings riverfront after a yearslong revival effort.
The Confluence Group, teaming with IDM Hospitality, recently completed the project, which turned the 100,000-square-foot former home of HD Hudson Manufacturing into a 77-key hotel, an event center, 18 apartments, a restaurant, and 1,000 square feet of office space, Hastings officials said this week.
The project, known as the Confluence, also includes a new riverfront park, deck overlook, and a riverfront trail expansion. Located at 200 Second St., the property sits along the Mississippi River in downtown Hastings.
City documents say the project is part of a larger effort to “reshape” the Mississippi Riverfront in Hastings, which includes removal of “industrial activities.” The 2003 Heart of Hastings plan called for “historic portions” of the manufacturing building to be rehabbed for new uses.
John Hinzman, the city’s community development director, said the project has been in the works for 14 years. Redevelopment was complicated and time-consuming, in part, because it involved site cleanup, partial demolition, a complex web of funding sources and multiple partners.
None of the city’s current elected officials or members of city’s economic development board were in those positions when planning started, so “we’ve had a lot of hand off on this project, with people seeing different ends of it,” Hinzman said.
“We were constantly in a situation that we had to express why we’re doing the things we’re doing to rehabilitate the site to make it what it is today, and it was a challenge to do so,” he said.
But the work paid off. In the end, the city received nearly $5 million in grant money to assist with environmental cleanup and other site work, he said. Sources included the Metropolitan Council, Dakota County, the state, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The public money leveraged $30 million in private investment. Hinzman said the developer secured historic tax credits, which were an “essential part of being able to finance the project.”
The building offers stunning views of the Mississippi River, and there’s a “charm” to being in that space, said Becky Roberts, vice president of IDM Hospitality, which manages the hotel. But the preservation aspect, in her view, is even more important.
“Anytime we can take something that has died, a standing factory that was vacant, and transform it into new life, that is what is really exciting,” Roberts said. “[The developers] gravitated and leaped into that in such a remarkable way, to celebrate the history of it but also give it new life.”
The project team included the Cuningham Group, which had interior design duties, and general contractor Stotko Speedling Construction.
Designers wove some of the historic elements into the building’s design. A factory worker’s notes, scribbled on exposed concrete, are visible, as are elements of the old diamond plate floor, which are now part of the building’s décor, Roberts said.
Constructed in 1909 and expanded in 1945, the building was home of the HD Hudson Manufacturing Co. for more than a century. The company “occupied the property through 2010, at which time it was identified … as being a manufacturer of hand-held steel spray tanks,” according to a 2012 environmental report.
A turning point came with the construction of the nearby Hastings/Highway 61 bridge. The $130 million bridge was completed in 2013 after three years of construction.
“When the bridge was planned and under construction, it took off all of [the manufacturing company’s] loading dock area, so they would have had to bifurcate their operations,” Hinzman said. “They didn’t want to do that at the time, so that became the impetus for us to come in and acquire the building.”
In 2010, the Hastings Economic Development and Redevelopment Authority paid $2.3 million for the building, which was the last industrial piece of the downtown riverfront. The city ultimately selected Confluence to develop the project and remediation work began in 2018.
Finance & Commerce reported in 2015 that the Hastings Planning Commission approved a final plat and site plan for a previous redevelopment plan. At the time, the project called for 60 market-rate apartments and 20,000 square feet of commercial space at the site.
The city’s mayor at the time, Paul Hicks, called the site a “unique piece of property that allows for viewing and appreciating the river. You just don’t come across those opportunities every day to do something like this.”
RELATED:
$221M overhaul planned for Hastings veterans campus
Minnesota cities cozy up to their waterfronts
300 apartments coming to Hastings
