Kristie Leshovsky | Community Development Director

Then and Now
Moorhead’s 2025 Development Report bookmarks progress over the city’s 150-year history by contrasting landmarks from its earlier days with the locations and adapted structures as they’re seen today. (Photos/Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County, City of Moorhead and FM Extra files.)

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

2025 was a stellar year for Moorhead – in civic, commercial, industrial and residential development.

That’s the conclusion detailed in the city’s 2025 Development Report. Released in mid-February at a meeting of the city council, the annual publication details progress on all fronts … just in time for the just-completed 250th anniversary of Moorhead’s founding and the 30th of the Moorhead Municipal Airport.

“It was a really stellar year,” community development director Kristie Leshovsky reflects.

From the construction of major projects in the city’s renewed downtown to a variety of new businesses, she says, the progress reflects the goals set out in Onward Moorhead. The plan, adopted in 2022, includes what have been dubbed “5 Big Ideas”– investing in downtown, creating great experiences in new and existing places, connecting neighborhoods, fostering sustainability, and supporting and celebrating businesses.

The big 2025 civic stories will reach their climax in coming months. “It’s going to be the year of ribbon-cutting,” Leshovsky points out. Among them:

* Opening of the $42.7 million community center/library informally called The Loop, on April 5.

* Reimagined Romkey Park, complete with community swimming pool and recreation facilities, slated to open at the beginning of summer.

* Matson Field’s makeover, including its grandstand and field, ready for baseball season.

* Completion of the $20-plus million renovation of City Hall late this year, along with the civic plaza being designed at its west side.

* Another year of progress on the long-awaited 11th Street underpasses between Main, Center and First Avenues.

Interest in the MCCARA Industrial Park east and south of 34th Avenue has been strong, the director reports. MinKo Construction, established in 1982, completed a new headquarters building this year, marking the general contractor and general management firms move to Moorhead. The area includes the largest shovel-ready acreage available in Minnesota.

Thanks to a $2 million grant from Minnesota’s Business Develop Public Infrastructure program, additional shovel-ready lots have been added to the industrial park. The new lots are somewhat smaller than the originals, spurring interest among businesses looking for less square footage.

Other industrial development projects were completed or underway – Duke Rentals, 94 Shops Storage Rentals, Fairchild Equipment, Abbott Arne Schwindt Storage, and RBF Contracting’s office and shop.

A total of 28 commercial projects were completed or were under construction in 2025. The list includes all kinds of enterprises – the opening of the Courts and Pints pickleball facility in the former Sunmart building in the Brookdale area; the Kwik Trip stores on 30th Avenue South and Southeast Main; the remodeling of Unwind, Ediblez and Green Goods locations soon to open as cannabis dispensaries, along with several others; and more.

After 50 years in the Center Mall, Downtown Chiropractic transitioned to Downtown Health and Wellness, adding three new business – the Forge, Oasis Spa and Fuel Haus – to its core services. SpeeDee Rapid Oil Change constructed its first local location on 30th Avenue South. 7 Brew Drive Thru Coffee drew lines of customers to the corner of Eighth Street and 25th Avenue South for its multitude of coffee choices and other beverages.

The city issued 1,012 permits totaling $113.7 million for building improvements. Commercial construction and remodeling accounted for 102 permits – nearly $23 million for new construction and $43 million for remodeling existing structures.

Residential development was strong, though somewhat down from 2023 and 2024. The city issued permits for 104 single-family homes, compared with the 10-year average of 110. Thirty-six multi-family units were also underway. Single-family residential permits totaled over $33 million, while multi-family permits accounted for $5.3 million in construction. According to the development report, 558 homes were sold with a median price of $269,950. The figure falls between 532 sales in 2023 and 578 in 2024, both with similar valuations.

Leshovsky noted that 117 fully serviced, buildable lots were located in subdivisions throughout the city at the beginning of 2026, many of them already sold to buyers in the first months of the year. Utilities and infrastructure are slated for installation in the Partridge Creek development south of 40th Avenue and Southeast Regional Park, approved by the city in 2025.

While apartment construction was down compared to recent years, two significant developments were added. The 28-unit apartment house at 14th and Main is nearing completion. Meanwhile, Churches United for the Homeless opened Silver Lining Apartments at 3350 Third Ave. N. The 36-unit complex offers housing for very low-income individuals age 55 and older who have faced chronic homelessness or housing instability.

The community development director also points to several “hidden gems” that relate to Onward Moorhead’s goal of providing more great experiences. “When people can have things to do in a vibrant downtown, it radiates out through the city,” she observes. She cites the restored Mary’s Tunnel, with its enclosure of bright white lights, and the skating ribbon through Davy Memorial Park, as well as the Rotary Natural Play Hill and Bike Park established in Riverfront Park by the FM Rotary Foundation.

She applauded Moorhead residents’ willingness to share their ideas for making their city even better in years to come, citing participation in planning for the City Hall Plaza. “Our request for their input brought in more than 200 responses,” she says. “We’re currently weeding through them The plaza is going to be a space where the city can enjoy itself – the growing downtown neighborhood’s back yard.”

And that neighborhood is growing. “Just a few years ago, there was exactly one apartment on Center Avenue,” she says. “Downtown redevelopment plans projected 500 to be built in five years. We came up just shy of that number by 2025, the fifth year, and we’ll reach it in year six.”

The Onward Moorhead initiative, she says, has been based on “meeting people where they’re at. They’ve been generous in sharing their ideas and dreams with us. People who might never have been able to make it to a structured public meeting can now have their voices heard through new avenues – questions on the coasters at Junkyard Brewing, for instance, and Facebook alerts about one-click mobile-friendly surveys.

“That generates ideas. What would residents like to see? Is something rising to the top? We get good ideas and crazy ones that spur new ways of thinking. It’s exciting to see what will come out in the end.”