The Commerce Center is located at 110 N. Minnesota Street in the former Herberger’s building. Over the last year, building owner Jason Kuester remodeled the interior to renovate the space into business offices on the main floor and apartments on the second and third floor.

Kuester’s goal with the Commerce Center was to provide space to new businesses downtown. He believed downtown New Ulm would see significant activity in the future. The building has room for 14 offices; three have been filled. Cove Collective Hair and Ink Studio, Cook Insurance Agency and Congressman Brad Finstad operate out of the building.

The formal ribbon cutting was held on the main floor stairs, leading to the office space on the lower levels.

Kuester explained these are the same stairs from Herberger customers used used to reach the children’s section of the store. He worked hard to keep as much of the original building’s structure in place.

Jason Kuester led members of the Willikommen Committee and interested citizens on a tour of the apartments above the new Commerce Center. Visitors were even allowed a peak at the 13,000 square foot VRBO rental apartment on the third floor. The unit is still in the rennovation process, but will be available for event rental as early as next August.

New Ulm Mayor Kathleen Backer performed the ceremonial ribbon cutting along with Kuester’s family. Backer thanked them for having the vision to repurpose the building.

“As a result, we have a fantastic multi-purpose facility with the New Ulm Commerce Center,” she said.

Following the ribbon cutting, a special “Business After Hours” event was held in the building. The public was invited to tour the recently renovated building, including the office space and apartments and Vacation Rental By Owner (VRBO) apartments.

Kuester gave a guided tour of the apartments spaces. The building has 11 apartments, three units are VRBOs. Some of the units are already occupied with tennets.

The third floor features a large penthouse style VRBO. Rennovation on the large VRBO space is ongoing, but Kuester said much of the ceiling and wall space will remain original.