The Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism (OACCT) is happy to introduce the community to a new business in town. High Bar Brands relocates from Blooming Prairie to consolidate businesses Minimizer and Premier Manufacturing into a single building.

In a Facebook conversation, Brad Meier of the OACCT speaks with Steve Hansen, Director of Marketing for High Bar Brands, which has a campus in Oregon as well, "We've got about 2,000 distributors set up throughout North America. Those distributors sell to the end-user. So you're talking owner/operators that might have one or two trucks, all the way to huge fleets like Fed-Ex Freight and these guys that you see going down the interstate."

"Our floor mats are specked in some of the largest fleets in North America. Our fenders are on huge fleets," says Hansen. He appreciates the amenities offered in Owatonna, "We have vendor meetings and customer meetings enough here where its nice to have availability of hotels, nicer restaurants, the [Owatonna] Country Club."

Meier encourages people to visit www.owatonnadevelopment.com for details on local development opportunities.

In the April 26 edition of the OACCT e-newsletter Tuesday Talk, officials say the downtown Cedar Avenue update continues, "As crews pulled the street off the 100 block of N. Cedar the last phase of the current streetscape project began. This is part of a $4 million project started last year by the city of Owatonna to conduct much needed underground repairs and to reshape the walkability of downtown."

"The timing of the project coincides with the big hotel development. The current streetscape project is scheduled to be complete before July 20th and the hotel is scheduled to open on August 2nd. A ribbon-cutting is being planned for the opening day of GEM Days on July 21st," Tuesday Talk reports.