The Fournet Building in downtown Crookston is almost finished with renovations that have taken place for the past couple of years. Jeff Evers is the building owner, and all construction work has been done internally with the major components such as electrical subbed out to other companies.
Evers said it’s been a long process, and he feels good to be wrapping up with the project. “It’s been a long journey for the past couple of years, and if you’re newer to town, people would tell you that we’ve been working on this forever,” said Evers. “We are getting there; we’re just about wrapped up in the atrium, and it’s starting to look good in there. A lot of desks are put together, carpet is down, and we have come a long way, but we still have a lot of work to do to have it finished by November.”
While Evers said he couldn’t give a firm timeline on when his portion of the project could be completed, he feels November is a reasonable goal. “I think the end of November is attainable,” said Evers. “We got a lot of work done, as I said, and we need to keep going with it now. We have started painting on the third floor and started to work on that, so November is a big month for us and will work whenever we have to so that we can try and have this complete by the end of the month.”
The elevator is also currently being installed as parts continue to arrive, and the floor plan to fill the building is in place. Evers talked about who will take each floor of the building once it is officially ready. “So, the entire second floor is going to be Tri-Valley Opportunity Council,” said Evers. “The third floor around the atrium is going to be the State of Minnesota Public Defenders. Will have everyone move in at the same time. We don’t want to finish one floor and then have to do work on another floor so everyone will move in simultaneously. The only work we will be doing after people have moved in is working on the event center.”
The idea for the third-floor event center would be to use it for weddings and big events, but Evers said they’ll have to wait and see if there is interest in that from the public. It is unsure how the main floor will be filled, and Evers is still considering who could move into that portion of the building.
Another neat feature inside the Fournet’s atrium is a massive skylight which now has all new structural beams that line the opening.
Evers said he believes he could make his portion happen and have Tri-Valley and the State of Minnesota Public Defenders move in on December 1. “If I were to say December 1, I think I could make my portion happen,” said Evers. “There isn’t any reason, though, that the beginning of January can’t happen. If we have to push and be aggressive to make that happen, we will.”
Pictures of some of the construction that is starting to wrap up can be found down below –
