"Tying it all Together" continued

It was worth the wait!  The first new building to be constructed on Main Street Victoria in at least the past 40 years is the Clocktower Building.  Groundbreaking occurred in 2003.  It is expected to open with retail and office space in a few weeks.  Thank you, (Terry) Hartman Communities and (Jack) Shaw Construction for a beautiful project.

#2) Downtown Acquisitions

Several purchases by the City of Victoria in 2003 are a continuation of downtown acquisitions that began in the 1990's after three decades of downtown deterioration and low rate of successful private enterprise.
During the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's residents saw the loss of many businesses, including farm related operations such as the feedmill, creamery, and equipment dealership, downtown grocery store, hair salons, meat market, cafe, taverns, hardware store, auto body shop, and more.
In the 1990's the City of Victoria began purchasing some of the vacant and dilapidated buildings and properties such as Tuffy's Tavern, Bottle Shop/Meat Market, and Victoria Auto Body as well as nearby single family homes on Stieger Lake.  The city also made moves to acquire the Sidco/Braunworth property.
In 2003 similar purchases continued as the city acquired the Victoria Cafe Building, a string of homes along Quamoclit Street, and dozens of easements and right of ways needed for stormwater management and downtown redevelopment.
Another 2003 city purchase that should not be overlooked is the STEP Group Home property on Lake Auburn.  It's only a block down from the Victoria Dairy Queen and could become a vital piece in improving downtown Victoria.

#3) Downtown Demolitions


This category is directly tied, of course, to "Downtown Acquisitions."  It seems to warrant a category of its own, however, because the acquisitions and demolitions occurred over time and not simultaneously.
In 2003 at least three downtown properties owned by the City of Victoria came to be demolished:  the Victoria Auto Body Shop, Sidco/Braunworth Building, and the single family home behind the Victoria House.
These projects are a continuation of downtown demolitions that have been occurring over these past three decades (old hardware store, old DX Station, old barber shop) with most of the major ones only in the past ten years (the bottle shop then the tavern and the three homes on Stieger Lake).

#4) Downtown Construction


Several construction projects in downtown Victoria saw dirt move for the first time in 2003.  They are a continu-ation of a list of renovations, additions, and new construction projects that occurred in downtown Victoria in the past decade -- projects such as the renovation of Floyd's and Nature's Bounty Garden and Gift Shop, the remodeling of the Victoria House and Victoria City Offices, additions to HEI and the Victoria State Bank, and new construction such as the Cabin Fever complex, the Baker Building, the downtown stoplight, the Stieger Lake Bridge.
The list of new downtown construc-tion projects  in 2003 is long, and it gives testimony to a continued new and confident age for the City of Victoria. 
In 2003 dirt began to move to accommodate downtown stormsewer and water lines, the burying of telephone lines, new sidewalks, pavers, and tree plantings, new downtown streets and parking spaces, a huge and classy retail and office center to be known as the Clocktower Building, a 45-unit condo complex on the shores of Stieger Lake, and a stylish new manner of building called the Victoria Autohaus.
This new construction list would not be complete without mention of the groundbreaking for a large new St. Victoria Catholic Church.  Located only a couple blocks from downtown, its architectural design announces the arrival of modernism in a historic community.


#5) Great Expectations


Dozens of projects and proposals from 2003 are not yet realities.  They are not yet physical realities, that is, but they are on the books.  The planning for them is a reality, and this in itself gives rise to great expectations for the future.  Together these projects, which went beyond the talking stage and well into the planning stage in 2003, pronounce an impressive future for the City of Victoria.
They include the Master Plan for 2,000 acres that are proposed for annexation into the City of Victoria, a public elementary school in Victoria, a Kidtalk Building on Main Street Victoria, the residential development of the McMahon, Schalow, and Lake Tamarack properties in Victoria, upcoming new street construction in several older Victoria neighborhoods, and the filling out of numerous Victoria neighborhoods that began in the 1990's.
All of what we are and what we do is a continuation of the journey.  Thank you, people of 2003 and people from ages past, for helping Victoria land successfully in this new year.  The Victoria Gazette is happy to help tie it all together for us, especially those things that bind us together well.

Sue@VictoriaGazette.com