June 19th, 2005

A purchase agreement for the former downtown Community
National Bank building was signed Wednesday between bank officials and
Mendota Homes, the company currently pursuing a development agreement with
the city in regard to a large redevelopment project downtown.

Last month, John Mathern, owner of Mendota Homes, announced that the two
businesses were negotiating a sale of the bank’s Bridge Square building.

Dick Schroeder, senior vice president of Community National Bank,
confirmed the sale agreement of the Bridge Square building and the bank¹s
drive-up property on Minnesota Highway 3.

Schroeder added that the entities had just signed a purchase agreement,
meaning the sale won¹t be official until a later date.

In Mathern’s initial announcement about the acquisition, the developer
who owns property in the Riverfront Redevelopment site and has a purchase
agreement with First National Bank in the city’s Q-block indicated that
under the terms of the sale, Mathern would keep the historical storefront of
the original bank, while demolishing the 1960s addition.

Michelle Kubitz

Reprinted with the permission of Northfield News