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.

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 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 project is anticipated to cost $14 million to construct.

The apartments will bring much needed housing and new activity to the city’s historic, 19th century downtown. 

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.

Rebound Real Estate, the Stencil Group and the City of Northfield are proud to share the virtual groundbreaking for the new 5th Street Lofts building..