(ABC 6 News) – The future of downtown Rochester is one of growth and construction as several organizations, including the city and Mayo Clinic, came together Wednesday to talk about their plans for 2025.

They’re calling it a “year of milestones” as major changes to the downtown landscape are set to begin taking physical shape as soon as just a couple weeks.

It starts on 2nd Street, with the first major demolition in Mayo’s Bold. Forward. Unbound. project taking place later this month.

“This includes exterior demolition of the Ozmun Complex, which has been undergoing interior demolition since closing late last October,” said Mayo Clinic’s senior director of external relations Erin Sexton.

The former Lourdes High School building is also set to come down starting in March, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Mayo also has ongoing ongoing utility work, which started in November 2024, and it will be remodeling some patient entrances later this spring.

Plus, three new parking ramps are scheduled to start construction this year, and should be completed by the end of 2026.

On top of that, the city will begin building its new Link BRT line along 2nd Street, starting and ending around the same time.

A lot of work that will take monumental effort to go smoothly.

“That’s why we’re working closely with our partners,” said Deputy City Administrator Cindy Steinhauser. “At Mayo and DMC and RDA and the Downtown Task Force and many partners in this community to make sure that people can get to work, people can support local businesses.”

To that end, these organizations are exploring option to make the process as painless as possible for everyone who will be impacted.

The primary effort will be through communication.

Mayo Clinic already has a website dedicated to informing patients about road and parking ramp closures, with detailed instructions on how to get to appointments depending on which building they’re in.

The city will be following suit later this month, launching a new website of their own, DowntownRochesterConstruction.com, with weekly construction updates and maps for people to plan their routes to downtown around.

“We recognize that regular updates are going to be really, really important,” said Steinhauser. “On project updates, construction progress, upcoming meetings like neighborhood meetings where people can get more information.”

As for downtown businesses, Mayo Clinic is stepping up to try to help ease the pain with a $500,000 grant to the Rochester Downtown Alliance.

That money will go to promoting and supporting businesses and make navigating the space easier during construction.

“We’re interested in increasing our investment in how does Rochester look and feel,” said RDA Executive Director Shawn Fagan. “What is the attractiveness, the experience to people downtown. We’re excited to activate this grant and invest it in those ways.”

Fagan also said they’ll be planning even more events in and around the downtown space to draw visitors, and will be offering grants to businesses to use to promote and market themselves.

Destination Medical Center, another organization with major investments in downtown through the Discovery Walk project, also has multiple resources available like its Infrastructure Investment Program for the downtown historic district and its Main Street Grant.

Community members will be able to get involved through city meetings.

The first is the city council study session on Monday, February 10.

Residents of the Kutzky Park Neighborhood also have a special meeting lined up for Saturday, February 12.