Downtown Red Wing has big potential for change
For years, conversation among Red Wing officials, business people, and non-profits has centered on the idea of revitalizing the downtown and West End neighborhoods. And, over those years, there have been plenty of successful efforts, like the Red Wing Shoe Company’s purchase and renovation of the St. James Hotel or the many murals painted around town.
Even with all of those positive changes, Chris Heineman, Red Wing’s City Administrator, says Red Wing currently has a chance to turn its revitalization efforts into a full “renaissance.”
It is rare, Heineman says, for the city to have “multiple significant investments at once.” But, thanks to both new and old sources of funding for local building and business owners, that is now the case.
A big factor in this potential “renaissance” is the $750,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) recently procured by Red Wing Downtown Main Street.
Local building owners can apply for funds to make capital improvements to buildings in the historic downtown. “These funds are a unicorn that aren’t going to come around again anytime soon. We are thrilled to be able to offer grants to strengthen and renovate our historic properties,” said Megan Tsui, Consultant with Downtown Main Street.
Another big influx of cash is in the hands of the city government. The Downtown Revolving Loan Fund, which Red Wing’s Community Development Director Kyle Klatt says “helps get projects over the finish line where they otherwise might not be able to move forward,” just added $150,000 to its coffers to be used in development projects in 2025 and 2026. The total of that loan program is now close to $250,000.
The Downtown Revolving Loan Fund and many other revolving loan funds managed by the city and the Red Wing Port Authority have been available for years. With this new money, the city will be able help even more businesses take on big renovation projects.
Another longstanding source of assistance for Red Wing’s building owners is the Housing and Redevelopment Authority, or HRA. The HRA has been operating in Red Wing for over sixty years, since it first established Jordan Towers. In the interceding years, the HRA has quietly provided more affordable and secure housing for Red Wing’s low-income community members, and done significant work in preserving Red Wing’s historic buildings.
Thanks to funds from Minnesota’s Small Cities Development Program, across the last twenty-plus years, the HRA has been able to provide loans of up to $50,000 for local building owners to, among other things, repair their roofs, windows, and masonry.
According to HRA’s Executive Director, Kurt Keena, they have given out 40 to 50 of these loans in that two-decade period. In both the West End and downtown Red Wing, he says, “There aren’t many buildings that we haven’t done this with.”
In addition to these loans, the City also offers Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, as a tool to support development and redevelopment projects. TIF allows the City to reimburse eligible development costs by capturing the increase in property taxes—known as the “increment”—that results from the higher property value of a completed project. The additional taxes generated are used to repay the developer for qualifying expenses. This financial mechanism helps make projects feasible that might not otherwise proceed without public support, while ultimately contributing to the community's long-term tax base.
Lastly, there is a new $100,000 Retail and Restaurant Challenge to help fill vacant spaces downtown. This program is hosted by Downtown Main Street and funded by the Downtown Philanthropic Collaborative, made up of four local foundations: The Jones Family Foundation, the Red Wing Area Fund, the Albrecht-Poss Family Foundation, and the Wings Foundation. These local foundations have contributed nearly $750,000 to downtown revitalization efforts.
Thanks to these opportunities, Red Wing’s business community is in a period of positive change that promises to create an historic partnership among private, philanthropic, and government entities.
More information on these programs can be found at:
https://www.downtownredwing.org/2025-retail-and-restaurant-challenge
https://www.downtownredwing.org/buildings
This story originally appeared in the Red Wing Republican Eagle.
