My Point of View by Brian Hensley

Albert Lea is a great community that offers so many opportunities for our residents. But could we offer more?

They city has a great downtown that is improving, and an amazing public space. We are blessed to have so many wonderful parks and trails for us all to use.

Our residents enjoy a beautiful amenity right in the center of our town. Small towns across America search for their identity. What makes them special or unique? Some towns have historical landmarks, a major employer. Others have quaint downtowns lined with coffee shops, antique stores or maybe breweries.

There is no question about what makes Albert Lea unique. We have beautiful bodies of water throughout our city.

There is a problem though, it’s that when they city was being laid out, before any of our times, someone forgot how beautiful our lakes are. Businesses were constructed that faced away from the lakes. We have a hospital that sits on prime lakeshore property and a helipad with an amazing view. Firemen driving the fire trucks catch an eyeful every time they navigate their rigs out of the fire station.

Churches face away from views that should be enjoyed. A Walgreen’s and a strip mall border the lake to the southeast, and none incorporated the views in their design or use.

Now a new opportunity lies in front of Albert Lea, Freeborn County and Minnesota residents.  That opportunity lies with development of the northwest shore of Albert Lea Lake, at the location named Blazing Star Landing. This location was once the site of the former Wilson & Co.

The city and a private consultant recently reviewed the site and talked about many opportunities for this parcel to be developed. While these ideas are years off, and at this point, they appear to be just ideas and an attempt to start a conversation; I was thrilled to hear terms being used like: best use, re-routing traffic, drawing customers and visitors, public activity space, combination of private and public, private developers, increased tax base, private and public partnerships.

These are the words of the future when cities look to grow. The city and county can’t build a city on their own, and they certainly don’t have all the answers. Local governments must work in partnerships with private companies and nonprofits organizations to meet the needs of the citizens. One idea mentioned included re-routing Front Street off of the lake and allowing private developers to build taxable shopping space, office spaces, possibly a hotel. Maybe a restaurant would want to take advantage of an amazing natural resource. Want to draw people to Albert Lea to spend money? Try putting an outdoor deck with a water view and some decent food, and watch jobs be created.

Another idea or possibly in conjunction, would be a large community center.  Many cities have gone this route and have turned these projects into a gem of an asset, mixing public use areas with private rented spaces.

Imagine relocating the Freeborn County Senior Center. A modern, clean, safe space that seniors could gather for meals, entertainment and activities. Possibly a small branch clinic from Mayo could be combined for simple doctor visits.

Spaces could be made available for public rental for small or larger private meetings. Local catering companies could have arrangements to provide catering. What if a private dance studio could rent space on a daily basis as needed.

Our local YMCA is need of a major upgrade. Maybe a partnership for a public recreation facility could forged. Imagine an indoor recreation center that was located so near gem like the Albert Lea Lake, Fountain Lake and the Shell Rock River Water Trail. Outdoor activities like canoeing, kayaking, ice fishing, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, snowmobiling could have a base of operations and rentals.

Add to this facility local physical therapists. They could rent space for their offices and use the facilities for their patient’s physical rehab needs.

Perhaps the school district could have discussions and arrangements could be made for a pool facility that would meet their needs and the local residents.

Perhaps the Chamber of Commerce or local Convention & Visitors Bureau could be located inside these buildings.

A great facility will bring in tournaments for sports like volleyball, basketball, soccer and hockey. We have such an advantage sitting on I-90 and I-35 between Des Moines and Minneapolis. Let’s take advantage and build a facility that attracts these people to our town, invite them to stay overnight in our hotels, eat at our restaurants and shop in our stores. All things that create a return on our investment.

These ideas may be new to Albert Lea but are not to the surrounding communities. They are not new to growing communities. These ideas will ruffle some feathers. They make things look different than they have. These ideas may be expensive upfront. It seems to me a community like Albert Lea, we all need to work together to form these ideas. We don’t need to spend every single dollar we can think of. We need to grow out tax base or create reasons for people to visit that will grow our tax base. We need an energy in this city to attract and retain young professionals, their families and their businesses.

We need creative thinking, and we need partnerships. We need everyone to play together and nicely in the sandbox. We need leaders who can share more and worry about protecting “their turf” less. We need citizens to become active in the process. We need to set everything on the table and think about what Albert Lea could look like 15 and 30 years down the road.

 

Brian Hensley is chairman of the Freeborn Republican Party and financial adviser with Intego Financial.