ST. CLOUD - The Downtown Council marked their 25th anniversary Tuesday with an event at a building that isn't event completed yet.  The soon-to-open Loft Condominiums on St. Germain Street served as the host site for the celebration.

Board Chair Jeff Peterson says downtown St. Cloud has come a long way, especially in about the past five years.  He says, as a regional center, St. Cloud has always drawn a lot of people from out-of-town.  But it used to be that they'd primarily just spend their time on the west end of the metro area.

But now we see people from Big Lake, and Becker, and Monticello come up here instead of going to the Twin Cities and they're spending time at the Paramount Theatre, and the Pioneer Place, and other places downtown.

Peterson says the new condos are a big next step with having people living downtown.

Meanwhile, Makenda Developer spokesman Rod Lindquist says the new lofts are about 80 percent complete. He says they're expecting to be finished by late June.

They did a ceremonial groundbreaking back in December of 2015.

He says they haven't sold any of the units yet, because they're waiting for the platting to be finished.  When that's done, Premier Real Estate will be in charge of selling the condos.

There will be a total of 47 units on the six floors.  They'll range in price from $179,000 to $360,000.  Lindquist says one of the main amenities will be the 1,000 square foot rooftop terrace.

Lindquist says for any downtown to be vibrant and sustainable there has to be housing.

This is a game changer, there has to be this type of product.  We expect to be sold out in the first nine months.  Residents will be able to walk to dinner, or the theater, or to Summertime By George.

Lindquist says the developers are hoping this is the first of many of these types of residential units downtown.

The Downtown St. Cloud Council is a member organization of about 140 members. Their goal is to promote the downtown.

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