WINONA, Minn. – With all 12 subscribing school boards now on board, the Hiawatha Valley Education District is nearly ready to close the deal and buy the Winona Mall. To be sure, said Hiawatha’s director, Deb Marcotte, there are details to iron out. But, she said, the end is in sight to consolidate Hiawatha’s far-flung special-ed programs in outlying areas into a single site. Converting the 138,000-square foot mall to learning and activity spaces will go relatively quickly, she said. There are advantages to centralizing, she said. No longer will teachers and special-ed experts need to be on the road to remote sites in Caledonia, Hokah, Wabasha and elsewhere. Also the district’s headquarters can move from cramped space on Bundy Boulevard to the sprawling mall. And students now bused from distant areas, including Lewiston, Mabel and Rushford, will go to the mall instead instead of Bundy Boulevard. It has taken months for Marcotte and her team to negotiate approval to buy the mall, a $4.2 milion deal, with all the client school boards. The last two boards signed on last week. These all are school districts that state law requires to offer programs for special-ed student but for which they don’t have resources to hire appropriately trained staff. This is a sampling of Hiawatha client school districts:
> Houston: 906.
> Wabasha: 899.
> Caledonia: 732.
> Rushford: 639.
> Lewiston: 692.
> Mabel: 265.
Hiawatha has been eyeing the mall since John Alexander, a Winona a real estate brkerer, put it up for sale. Alexander bought the mall for $5 million six years ago. His hope was to revive it as a retail center, but the mall never regained traction to compete with new strip stores that cropped up across town on the Far East End around Target, Walmart and other big-box stores. What will become of remaining Winona Mall retail stores and tenants? Some may stay, Marcotte said. A pending issues is to review existing tenancy contracts.
Current Winona location. On Far East End at1410 Bundy Boulevard.
Earlier: Winona Mall negotiations now at $4.3 million
Earlier: Winona Mall sell-off into new phase
Earlier: Winona County commercial property sales so far 2023
Past its prime. The mall opened in 1983 and flourished but no longer. Gomne are anchors like a grocery supermarket or a super pharmacy or a full-serve hardware. Once te mll was also home to dress shops, jewelry stores, fashion salons, a home electronics store, a haberdashery, a book store and even an aquarium and pet store. Image: Steve Lunde