Since 2022, Gil Paz has operated Spyhouse Coffee Roasters on one of Rochester’s busiest streets. Even just a few months ago, he said, it was teeming with activity.
“It was bustling with a lot of foot traffic, obviously a lot of car traffic, being that we’re two blocks away from Mayo Clinic you’d get a variety of different people,” he said.
Today the intersection is blocked in three directions. It’s being torn up and rebuilt for an expansion of Mayo Clinic and a bus rapid transit line — a fleet of buses that run every few minutes in a loop. With Mayo covering costs, it will be free.
Paz said he’s excited about the prospect of all these people disembarking right in front of his shop. It will be great for businesses.
But in the meantime, the construction is a hassle.
“It’s still people going to Mayo, people still go to work,” he said. “But as the day progresses, we have seen a dwindling of that traffic from, say, about two or three in the afternoon until we close in the evening."
Paz adapted. He assigned staff to earlier shifts to handle the morning rush. And he created a rewards program for repeat customers to try to keep people coming in the door amidst the construction.
It’s a familiar pivot for businesses near Mayo, which has been in major expansion mode.
The nearly three mile bus line is part of that expansion, and it’s a signature project of Destination Medical Center or DMC. That’s a $5.6 billion dollar, 20-year transformation for the city. Minnesota taxpayers are kicking in nearly $600 million.
Ten years in, bus line construction is just getting started, and it’s slated to open in early 2027. Local, state and federal dollars are paying for it. And it's costly. Last month, local officials approved another $21 million for the project bringing the total to just shy of $200 million. They said costs associated with tariffs and a tight construction labor market have contributed.
More people, more cars
The bus line is necessary to accommodate Rochester’s rapid growth, said Catherine Malmberg, who is DMC’s public infrastructure and strategic development director.
Between 2010 and 2020, Olmsted County’s population grew by more than 20,000 people, with most of that population growth in Rochester. With Mayo’s expansion, that growth is expected to continue, said Malmberg. Hence the need for a bus line.
“If everyone continued to travel in the same modes that they were traveling downtown at that time through primarily single occupant vehicles, that there would actually be a really extreme amount of congestion,” she said.
And the buses, which will be electric, are part of a bigger development plan, said Malmberg. At the west end of the bus line, construction has started on a transit village, a mixed-use development oriented around the rapid bus line, that’s promised to attract private development.
“We need housing here, hopefully some amenity retail and other services that are useful for both people commuting from this location, but also the existing neighborhoods that are already right around us,” she said.
Easier to get around
Eric Decker lives in one of the neighborhoods adjacent to the new bus line — and all the construction. As a member of the neighborhood association, he’s followed the project closely, and he’s been pleased by what he describes as regular and clear communication from the city about the project’s progress.
He said he’s excited about what the rapid bus line will bring to the neighborhood.
“It’s going to take care of so much of the traffic issues going on,” he said. “I am so excited to be able to walk a few blocks over and be able to zip in either direction with free fares and to get some of these other destinations.”
Canadian Honker restaurant manager Samantha Wilschek said she’s also hopeful about the project. She said foot traffic has dropped while the street out front is torn up, and she expects that dip will continue until construction wraps up in about four months.
But regular updates from the city have helped her manage the hit to business. When the project is done, Wilschek is confident her restaurant will benefit from more people coming downtown.
“We just have to stay positive for four months,” she said. “That's it.”
