$14 million apartments might be boost to Northfield.

Byline: Matt M. Johnson

The last time the bulk of the apartment stock in downtown Northfield might have been considered relatively new, Jesse James and Cole Younger were in town to rob a bank.

Northfield-based Rebound Real Estate and South Dakota developer Stencil Group will give that inventory an update starting this fall as they begin construction on a new, 79-unit apartment building. The co-developers will break ground on the $14 million Fifth Street Lofts this fall at 112 Fifth St. E., a property that is one street off the city's main drag, Division Street.

The planned four-story, market-rate building will rise where a Premier Bank branch and an aging house currently stand. The project was fully entitled at the start of October and will receive $1.8 million in city tax increment financing and a $250,000 loan from the city's Economic Development Authority, said Nate Carlson, the authority's coordinator.

The apartments will bring "much needed" housing to the city's historic, 19th century downtown, Carlson said in a Wednesday interview. Retail vacancies have increased in recent years and the city wants to see those spaces filled, he said. The city spent $3 million last year rebuilding a portion of the Division Street streetscape with new curbs, gutters, sidewalks and pavement. The arrival of the Fifth Street Lofts is the next step in the downtown's revitalization, Carlson said.

"This is going to be a game changer," he said.

Northfield is perhaps best known for the James-Younger Gang's 1876 raid of the First National Bank. The city, which is about 40 minutes south of Minneapolis, has seen some redevelopment in recent years. Rebound has had a hand in some of the splashier projects, including an 80-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott the developer completed at 114 Second St. W. last year. The company will also build Premier Bank's new Northfield location on an outlot next to the Fairfield.

Rebound also recently opened Reunion restaurant and bar on Division Street. The project, which is less than a block west of the Fifth Street Lofts site, is a $4 million renovation of an 1870s-era downtown building and two others that once housed long-time Northfield watering holes, Grundy's Bar and the Reub-n-Stein.

The Fifth Street Lofts is...