Downtown Lake Elmo currently lacks a true community focused dining hub. Our plan addresses this gap by creating two vibrant gathering places that offer great food, distinctive beverages, a year-round opportunities for connection.

Over and over again through community surveys and on social media, residents have said they do not want more housing in the old village core. They want more restaurants, more family oriented gathering spaces, and more parking downtown. Our plan answers those requests directly at the fire station.

The fire station's the engine of the whole whole project that's that's going to fuel and fund what else we do what else gets done there.

I think the fifth on that one, I guess.

These cities like Lake Elmo represent places that have history with agricultural legacies, but also have a real downtown that represents a pretty rare uh a pretty rare um opportunity, which is to say a walkable town is really hard to to come by. And as we've discovered in our kind of, you know, really hitting the streets, getting to know the people here, this is a place that is really special and beloved to everyone in this community.

When we transition to a brew pub model, we actually give up our ability in the state of Minnesota to do distribution. So, we won't be selling on liquor store shelves. We won't be um selling kegs to restaurants and things like that. We would happily walk away from that business.

Again, if it if it doesn't work and it doesn't financially viable for Lake Elmo then who's coming in there, right? Well, this is the the piece that for us is and I'm I'm you're rightly bringing up and it is an area for us that we're coming up with, you know, some of these uh what we can expect from higher returns on some of the residential can offset some of the costs and even in some ways subsidized, but the cost of new construction is is high.

Our concept of the Old Village social is really all about community fun for all ages and uniqueness. We really want to be able to capture and harness that charm of Lake Elmo and then people a place to enjoy and and celebrate with their friends and family. And we want it to be unlike any place else.

Uh this is Rob Clap, uh owner of Eclective and St. Paul Brewing in Can Wonderland. Uh a very valid question and one that we've been studying and paying attention to for the last deeply in the last 12 months. And in fact, there's been an article se several months ago, but that talked about all these breweries that have been closing and they actually featured us because we were one of the few breweries that um not only were we not in at risk of going under, but we were thriving and exceeding year-over-year sales even this year alone. Can can or sorry, St. brewing is up 15% over last year.

But then if things um are breaking down, then that's what that team is there. And and if you if you've been to St. Paul Brewing, you'll see that there's a passion uh for the decor and the ambiance and and it's not a normal expense that most restaurants would uh would endure. And it's just for me um it's really important that it creates that aha uh moment and and honestly it's u it's expensive but it's worth it.

I do want to thank you all because you took the time. You all made investments to put this together. So, you need some kudos for that.

I encourage whoever wins to consider some of the interesting, you know, concepts from the other proposals and think of ways that you can incorporate them. to Jeff's point, like we're happy with all these and and they they all could have a life in our community and I wish I could blend them all together and, you know, double the size of the space and we'd have a heck of a downtown.

My biggest concern is what is the uh long-term sustainability of the businesses that are being proposed and how do they fit into uh into the town?

So the initial vote was five for Taff and Ladder, three for Lake Elmo Comments and two for OB Social and then when OB Social was eliminated the final is six for Tap and Ladder and four for Ellie Comments.