The following article was published in the Excelsior/Shorewood Sun Sailor, Wednesday June 17, 1992 and used with permission courtesy of Sun Newspaper.

Construction Begins on Building
by Matthew Zlatnik

Construction started this week on downtown Excelsior's first new office building in more than 20 years.

American Industrial Refrigeration (AIR) hopes to move into its new tow-story building on Lake Street by the end of the year, said Morris Eisert of the company.

Groundbreaking began Monday. Two buildings on the site were burned to the ground the past two weekends to provide training for the Excelsior Fire Department. The new facility at 470 Lake Street will contain the sales and design staff of AIR, which designs and builds cooling and ventilation systems for food and chemical industries, AIR also has facilities in Atwater, Minn., and Watsonville, Calif.

The 3,600-square-foot Excelsior building, designed by Paul Hannan of Minneapolis, includes arches over the windows, detailed brick work, pilasters, and other touches intended to give it a "historical" style.

"We wanted the building to appear as though it was meant to go in Excelsior," Hannan said. "We didn't want a building that could go anywhere.

"There are a lot of good buildings in Excelsior. It was an easy task to use those buildings as a model."

"We try to be very quality conscious," said Eisert. "That's why we're building the building in character with Excelsior. We want something we can bring our customers to."

First State Bank built a drive-in facility on Second Street last year, and several downtown buildings have had major renovations during the last decade. But the AIR building will be the first all-new commercial building downtown since the TCF Bank building was constructed in 1967, and the first new building downtown since the Excelsior Gables condominiums were built in 1982.

AIR was founded in 1979 by Eisert, who's been in the cooling industry for 30 years. The company designs cooling and ventilation systems for food plants and ice arenas. Major clients have included Kraft, Land-O-Lakes and Ocean Spray.

Sales have grown consistently, said Eisert, and the design staff is expanding.

"I wanted to be in a low-key, small-town atmosphere," said Eisert, who lives in Excelsior. "I came from a small town, and I wanted to stay in that atmosphere. I wanted to get something where I didn't have to hassle with the traffic."

An artist's drawing of the office building designed by architect Paul Hannan for Excelsior-based American Industrial Refrigeration.