Pine City’s 315 Main Street work group heard proposals from two developers for the historic courthouse at a meeting on Thursday morning.
Solutions Real Estate Group, owned by Jacob Kruse, presented in conjunction with Minneapolis-based architecture and design firm ESG, and New History, a consulting firm specializing in reusing historic buildings.
The first concept proposed by SRE was a boutique hotel, with 37 total guest rooms.
The second was a short-term rental concept, with 28 units.
“Short-term rental is really flexible,” explained Gretchen Camp with ESG, who would serve as project manager, “So in both of these scenarios, I think the building would feel like an inn of some sort, like the Pine City Inn. Even though it’s rental apartments, they can function for short-term stays.”
New History representative Kirk Davis said the facade of the courthouse is “in good shape,” and believed the exterior of the building would require a light touch.
“This building has a lot of great historic bones to it, and we really want to respect that, but we also want to weave in the local story of Pine City, the history here and the context,” Camp explained.
Kruse estimated the total development cost of the project between $65,000 to over $100,000 per room, for a total between $2 and $3 million.
As far as a timeline, the project would likely require about six months for design, one month for permitting, and a three-to-five month review process to qualify for the federal historic tax credit.
Camp said the construction process would likely start in spring of 2026, with a 12-to-16 month schedule.
The second proposal for 315 Main Street was presented by James Foster of JCF Companies. The two-phase approach would renovate the city hall building into high-quality housing and construct a new apartment complex adjacent to the existing structure.
“We know that the city of Pine City, just in general, has a housing shortage,” Foster said. “We also know there are a lot of people that are clamoring for some type of hotel, or some type of short-term rental.”
The project would create 64 units of housing, with about 12 units dedicated as short-term rentals.
“There really isn’t a medium- to high-income housing option within the city for a rental apartment,” Foster said.
The plan would include options from studio to three-bedroom apartments. One concept would include a community gazebo and gathering space with 83 parking spaces; the other has 95.
JCF has hired LHB as an architecture firm to help with engineering, renderings, and conceptual designs.
Foster said JCF would look to start the project in 2025, with each phase taking a year and a half to complete.
“If we do them consecutively, it’s roughly a three-year project,” he said. “If we do it concurrently, we can shorten that.”
The total development cost was anticipated at about $6 million, including about $230,000 to remove asbestos from the building.
“We believe that the project fills a substantial hole within our community,” Foster said.
Evaluations of the proposals from the 315 Main Street work group members will be compiled and presented to the city council at their meeting on April 2.
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