Olmsted County looking to add $20 million facility to Graham Park

(ABC 6 NEWS) – Many people know Graham Park as the home to the Rochester Farmers Market or the Olmsted County Fair, and now the county is looking to upgrade some of the facilities.

Graham Park is projected to have more than 1,000 events in 2022.

Many might not know that the park can be busy at all times of the year thanks to things like the fair, youth hockey, trade shows, and more.

They’ve already been working on other projects like Floral Hall and updating the corn tower.

The county hopes this big project will bring a lot of positive change to Graham Park.

"We want to take down those animal agricultural buildings and replace it with a modern building that has multipurpose and can do all different kinds of things for our community to trade shows, to animal shows, to amateur sports," Olmsted County Commissioner District 6, Sheila Kiscaden said.

The exhibition center will be 60,000 square feet. There will also be a new program support plaza for things such as outdoor events and camping.

There will also be a new covered pavilion for the farmer’s market to allow for more protection from the weather.

"We really have places where we meet together and learn together gather together celebrate together have trade shows together and you can’t do all of those things in the luxurious facilities we have in our downtown this is more the space for the rest of us as what I sometimes say," Kiscaden said.

They hope the new space can help to bring more traffic to Graham Park.

If the new project becomes a reality, the county shared the updated facilities could increase the total economic benefit from $5.5 million to $13.7 million each year.

You can learn more here.