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A giant backhoe dredged up 60 years of Rum River sediment in Anoka last week. The 4-foot-deep channel is part of city efforts to lure more people, including Mississippi River boaters, up the Rum to the historic downtown.

Above the Rum on Main Street, officials are refurbishing the city's image, which has helped attract new business and housing. Downtown streets will sport a new logo and banners next spring. Some think the city is beginning a Stillwater-style redevelopment. Here's the latest:

• Rottlund Homes broke ground this fall for a 40-unit condo near Main Street and the Rum River. It has city approval to build more housing, including a four-story loft and retail building overlooking the river. The loft condos will be adjacent to a new riverfront park just upstream of City Hall.

• Although a half-dozen shops have closed in the past year, about nine new businesses have opened, including three restaurants and a sports bar.

• This week a long-vacant Burger King near Main and Ferry streets will be demolished and replaced by a 12,000-square-foot retail building and a Union Square plaza early next year, officials said.

• A gas station and two adjacent businesses at 7th and Main were cleared, and construction is underway for a CVS Pharmacy. Across the street, Gould's, a longtime family-run jewelry business, has opened a spacious new shop.

"There is a great possibility this could be the next Stillwater," said developer Dean Clossey, who has renovated a historic downtown building. With the new Rottlund housing and Northstar light rail coming next year, he said, "everything is here to accommodate that type of development."

Clossey received a city loan to remodel his building a block off Main Street near City Hall. This fall the Legal Grounds coffee shop and Half Moon bar-restaurant opened in Clossey's building. He proudly pointed out the fixtures on the back of his building that will carry the city's first skyway. Next year it will bridge an alley to the second level of the city's two-year-old, 269-space parking ramp.

Rottlund's three-story, $7-million condo building is going up a block north of the ramp. Rottlund has been working on the project for three years and "is excited to be part of the revitalization of downtown Anoka," said Mike Swanson, a company vice president.

Council Member Phil Rice, who becomes mayor in January, said the city has bought up key riverside and other property since the 1980s to have available to sell to attractive developers such as Rottlund.

The downtown is holding its own, Rice said, but has struggled as the huge Riverdale shopping area developed about a mile east on Main Street in neighboring Coon Rapids. Downtown Anoka offers merchants charm and lower rent, he said.

'Value and opportunity'

"We have a beautiful, historic and quaint downtown," he said. "We still have excellent value and opportunity."

The $160,000 dredging project makes it easier for Mississippi boaters to get up the Rum to the floating dock behind City Hall.

Although some criticized the cost during this fall's City Council races, Rice said such maintenance is necessary to keep up a 130-year-old city.

The council has discussed adding more dock space by City Hall and building new docks above the downtown Rum River dam to encourage upstream boaters and snowmobilers to visit downtown, Rice said.

The city is working with developers and businesses to upgrade the five-block historic district, that includes 45 buildings erected in the 1880s after a fire wiped out most of downtown, said Bob Kirchner, city community development director for nearly 30 years.

Vic Uppal, developer of the Union Square site, said he likes the urban feel of the downtown and is negotiating with potential food and banking tenants for his planned building. Kirchner said the 3,000-square-foot Union Square plaza will include a fountain and plaque noting the nation's first Civil War volunteer for the Union army signed up at that location.

Jim Adams • 612-673-7658