The Story Behind St. Cloud's Newly Restored Red Owl Building

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- From a grocery store to a space for inspiration, an old building on West St. Germain Street in downtown St. Cloud has some new tenants.

BCI Construction has finished the renovation of its building.

President and CEO Ryan Cross says it was important to them to go through the historic process and have the building added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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Cross says they paid a lot of attention to the exterior facade.

We took our time identifying the right groups, the planning, the process, and the point work that went into it. We saw some amazing artistry from a previous generation. I think it turned out stunning.

The building has been named "Historic Red Owl Foodstore". The grocery store didn't build the building, but they became a tenant in half the building in 1932 and eventually took over the whole building. Red Owl was one of the longer tenured groups in the space.

It had been mostly empty since when Paddy's Game Shoppe moved out.

Cross says he'll have five members of his pre-construction team working in the building. They are also leasing space to Commercial Real Estate Solutions, Fluid Interiors, and Headwaters.

It's just this nice continuity of people who all help change spaces, and it just builds an ecosystem for all of us to connect and interact, even if we're not all working on the same projects together.

Cross says 10 people are working in the building right now, and it is designed for up to 14 people to work there.

Cross says he wanted to buy the building and move some of his staff there because he believes in a revitalized downtown.

For us, we've been doing so much downtown revitalization for other clients. For me, it was a chance to show people this is what it looks like in our eyes. We are trying to leave a blueprint for how to help people go through this type of development and redevelopment.

BCI Construction had been leasing space in a building across the street before purchasing the building.

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