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September 4, 2008

'Moose' season at Belle Mar

Updated lodge celebrates grand opening

By Brian Ojanpa

MANKATO — The well-traveled Mankato Moose Lodge appears to have found a long-term home and will celebrate with a grand opening Saturday.

Open to the public, the event will feature free hog-roast pork sandwiches and a country music show.

“We want to expose our place to non-members as well,” Moose business manager Lee Overmoen said of the service club’s new quarters in the revitalized Belle Mar Mall.

The 600-member Moose Lodge 1414 and Women of the Moose 606 moved from its longtime Victory Drive location in 2002 to a site on the north end of the mall.

The Victory Drive extension project forced the club to move again last summer, when it relocated to the basement of American Legion Post 11.

The Moose moved into its current quarters June 6 — and back into a mall undergoing a rebirth of sorts.

Belle Mar, which opened in 1964 and is Mankato’s oldest mall, is putting on a new face.

“Our goal now is to give it a new look, to bring vitality back to it,” said Frank French of the mall’s Chaska-based owners, The Goodman Group.

French said the plan is to give the mall a fresh new look and “re-tenant” certain parts of the building. That new look includes exterior refurbishing that coincides with the appearance of the mall’s newest tenant and anchor store, Ace Hardware.

When completed, the realignment of Victory Drive will turn it into a highly trafficked corridor, which French and Moose officials say will give the area a much higher profile than before.

“I’m sure it won’t hurt anything,” said Mankato Moose Governor Dick Schubbe of the increased visibility the mall and road realignment will provide for the club.

After several years in transit, Schubbe said he’s glad the club has found a home for the long haul.

“Hopefully we’ll be there until we outgrow it,” he said of hopes the new location might help boost membership numbers.

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